The Barsen'thor

"There's a title reserved for the most prestigious among us, whose wisdom and skill safeguard the galaxy. It hasn't been bestowed in thousands of years.''" "''But you have proven worthy. Now the Council names you Barsen'thor, Warden of the Order."

- Masters Jaric Kaedan and Syo Bakarn, granting the Jedi the distinguished title

During the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, a certain Jedi Master proved worthy to be granted the title of "Barsen'thor," a Cerean word meaning "Warden of the Order." The Jedi was only the third person to attain the prestigious rank in the entire history of the Jedi Order, and the first one to receive it in thousands of years. Found as a child to be gifted with an incredibly deep innate connection with the Force, the future Barsen'thor followed the path of a Jedi Consular, training under Jedi Master Yuon Par on the ancestral Jedi world of Tython. During that training in 3643 BBY, the Padawan was instrumental in finding the fabled Fount of Rajivari, an ancient repository of knowledge, and stopped the Twi'lek Force-sensitive Nalen Raloch&mdash;who had been empowered by the knowledge gained from the Fount&mdash;from destroying the Forge, a machine used by the ancient Jedi to create lightsabers. The victory over Raloch earned the Jedi a promotion from the rank of Padawan, as well as the loyalty of the Trandoshan hunter Qyzen Fess, who came to regard the Jedi as the "Scorekeeper's Herald"&mdash;the champion of his religion's deity, the Scorekeeper. Around that time, a sickness known as the Dark Plague struck the Jedi Order once again, driving Jedi Masters across the galaxy insane. Learning an ancient Force ability called the shielding technique from the Noetikon devices, the Jedi traveled from planet to planet, using the technique to sever the sick Jedi Masters from the influence of Lord Vivicar, the Sith mastermind behind the plague. Eventually, the Jedi confronted the plaguemaster himself, who was possessed by the spirit of the plague's long-dead creator Terrak Morrhage. The Consular successfully redeemed Vivicar, driving out Morrhage's spirit and restoring Vivicar's former persona of Parkanas Tark, a Jedi Padawan who had been corrupted years ago by the dark side influence of the planet Malachor III. The Consular was also recruited into the Republic Navy's elite Coruscant Aegis squadron, in which the Jedi piloted a Defender-class light corvette under the call sign "Guardian."

The victory over Vivicar was the event that earned the Jedi the title of Barsen'thor. With that victory also came another assignment, from the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus himself. Granted the title of Jedi Master, the Barsen'thor was assigned as an envoy to the Rift Alliance, an organization of worlds who sought to secede from the Republic due to disillusionment with the galactic government's ignorance of their planets' problems. After rescuing the representatives of the Rift Alliance from a Sith attack, the Barsen'thor tried to convince the politicians to come back into the Republic's fold. In order to do so, however, the Jedi had to prove the Republic's worth to the Rift Alliance. To this end, the Consular performed a number of tasks on behalf of the Rift Alliance on the planets Balmorra, Quesh and Hoth. After the Jedi Master succeeded in securing the Rift Alliance's trust and gaining a number of allies during those travels, a new threat emerged in Children of the Emperor. The Children were unwitting deep-cover agents of the Empire who shared a Force connection with the leader of the Empire, the allegedly immortal Sith Emperor himself. The Barsen'thor thwarted an attempt by Augin Blaesus, a traitorous member of the Rift Alliance and a Child of the Emperor, to kill the King and Queen of Sarkhai, a member world of the Rift Alliance, killing Blaesus instead. However, according to Blaesus's final words, many more Children remained, having infiltrated deep within the ranks of the Republic, their presence masked by the power of the mysterious First Son. Although the Children were still a threat, more pressing matters emerged, as a second Galactic War began between the Republic and the Empire. Tasked by the Supreme Chancellor to find allies who could help the Republic win the war, the Barsen'thor followed the rumors of an ancient army of the savage Esh-kha species imprisoned and kept in containment below the surface of the Republic high security planet-prison Belsavis, successfully negotiating an alliance with a faction of the ancient species, led by the Esh-kha individual called Hallow Voice.

The Barsen'thor, however, was unable to prevent the murder of the Rift Alliance Sarkhai Senator Tobas Grell at the hands of an agent of the First Son. Following the last will of the late Senator, the Jedi Master accepted the man's daughter, the young Force prodigy Nadia Grell, as a Padawan. Shortly afterward, the Barsen'thor was called to assist the war effort on the Republic Core World of Corellia, which had been attacked by the Empire. Reinforcements brought by the Barsen'thor helped turn the tide of the battle in favor of the Republic. During the battle, the Consular discovered that the First Son was in fact a sleeper persona implanted inside Jedi Master Syo Bakarn, who had been guiding the Barsen'thor since the latter's departure from Tython. The Jedi eventually confronted the First Son himself in the caves below Corellia's Coronet City, defeating him and successfully bringing back Bakarn's personality, which removed the First Son's shroud over the other Children, revealing them to the rest of the galaxy. With the Empire having been dealt a major blow with the loss of the First Son and the exposure of the Children, the Barsen'thor and the Jedi's many allies were celebrated as heroes on the galactic capital of Coruscant, with the Jedi Master being rewarded with Bakarn's vacant seat on the Jedi High Council. Having attained reputation for being a wise and respected member of the Council, the Barsen'thor joined the fight against the mad Jedi Revan and later led the Jedi Council's search for the means to stop the Sith Emperor once and for all.

Early training
"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force."

- Master Syo Bakarn recites the Jedi Code to the young Jedi

A Force-sensitive individual was born at some point during the period of galactic history marked by the resurgence of the Sith Empire, the resulting Great Galactic War between the Empire and the Galactic Republic, and the Cold War that followed the conflict. A child prodigy, whose Force powers manifested at a very early age, the individual was discovered by the Jedi Order and trained as a Jedi under a number of Jedi instructors during the Cold War. The young Jedi Initiate was considered extremely wise for such a young age and displayed a remarkable connection with the Force, something unheard of in decades. In 3643 BBY. the young Jedi was sent to the ancestral Jedi world of Tython to learn from an official mentor, so that the Initiate could complete the Jedi Trials and further develop such unique connection with the Force, following the path of a Jedi Consular. The Jedi was assigned as a Padawan to a respected Jedi Master and scholar called Yuon Par, who specialized in archaeology. Arriving via a shuttle down to the planet's surface, the young Jedi landed at a remote meditation temple known as the Masters' Retreat. There, the young Padawan was greeted by a famed Jedi High Council Member, Master Syo Bakarn, while Master Par was delayed on her archaeological inquiries. When Par finally arrived, she informed her new apprentice of an urgent matter. A team of Jedi researchers had recently uncovered several teaching holograms&mdash;priceless holorecordings made by the founders of the Jedi Order&mdash;in the region known as the Tythonian Gnarls. However, the native Flesh Raiders, known for their tendency to destroy such invaluable findings, had started rampaging through the region. As a first official training task, Par's Padawan was assigned to go to the Gnarls and retrieve the hologram's projectors so that they could be preserved.

Armed only with a training lightsaber, the Jedi Consular successfully defeated the attacking Flesh Raiders and retrieved three of the four devices, containing the recordings made by Masters Cala Brin, Garon Jard, and Ters Sendon. However, the Padawan found out that the fourth holoprojector had been stolen. Using a personal holocomm device, the apprentice reported the discovery to Master Par, who was surprised by the news. The Flesh Raiders were not known for stealing artifacts; they usually destroyed them outright. Par promised to look into the matter and instructed the student to meet her at the Tython's main Jedi Temple. Arriving at the Temple, the Padawan was greeted by a fellow young trainee, the Zabrak Hallen, who instructed the apprentice to speak with Master Wettle in order to receive some training in martial arts from him. After following Hallen's advice and meeting with Wettle, the Padawan reported to Par, finding her engaged in a conversation with a Trandoshan male. The Jedi Master introduced the latter as Qyzen Fess, an old friend of hers who was on Tython on a hunting expedition. Par also told the apprentice the information she had managed to discover about the missing holorecording. The recording belonged to Master Rajivari, the fourth of the founding members of the Order, who had fallen to the dark side of the Force and had betrayed his fellow Masters. Par suspected that the thief was likely someone from the Kalikori village, an illegal settlement of Twi'lek Pilgrims, driven from their homeworld of Ryloth by religious prosecution. As the Pilgrims lived in a state of poverty, Par believed that the thief was most likely intending to sell the ancient device for credits.

Afraid that the holoprojector could hold the most powerful and darkest secrets of Rajivari, Par tasked the Padawan to travel to the Kalikori village and speak with the captain of the village guard, Bashenn, in hopes of discovering the thief's identity. However, the Consular was instructed to be delicate in that task, as the Jedi Order was officially forbidden from helping the Pilgrims, due to them being on Tython in violation of Republic law. Once at the Kalikori village, the Padawan spoke to Bashenn as instructed and discovered that Nalen Raloch, the village's dueling champion and the person responsible for defending his people against Flesh Raider attacks, had taken the holoprojector and had ventured deep into Flesh Raider territory. The Padawan followed Raloch's path and found the holoprojector in Raloch's camp established inside a cave. Raloch soon arrived himself, explaining to the Consular that the reason he had stolen the holoprojector was to find a way to defeat the Flesh Raiders once and for all, thus protecting the people of the Kalikori village from them. Raloch was, in fact, sensitive to the Force and had gained some knowledge on how to manipulate it from Rajivari's hologram. Demonstrating what he had learned, Raloch used the Force to collapse the cave in an attempt to attract the Raiders there and have them killed. After doing so, the Twi'lek left the scene. The Consular took Rajivari's holoprojector and, fighting through the Flesh Raiders attracted by the groundquake, managed to escape from the cave as well. Bringing the projector to Par, the Padawan activated it, hoping to learn what Raloch had been after. However, the holographic image of Rajivari merely spoke enigmatically of some sort of "true wisdom," which he had hidden at a location which the "first blade at the sanctuary of the Order" pointed at.

The Fount of Rajivari
"Master, you seem shaken?''" "''I&mdash;I'm fine. This is just&hellip;hard to believe. After Rajivari fell, sources claimed he created a great archive of his knowledge and teachings. The Fount of Rajivari. Generations of Jedi searched for it, finding nothing. The Fount's considered a hoax by all reputable scholars, but&hellip;we just heard proof."

- The Consular and Yuon Par, after seeing Rajivari's holorecording

Master Par realized that the "true wisdom" Rajivari spoke of was the Fount of Rajivari, a rumored collection of the fallen Master's teachings. The Fount was considered a hoax by the Jedi after numerous unsuccessful attempts to locate it, but the holorecording provided definite proof of its existence. Master Par also deduced that "the sanctuary of the Order" referred to Kaleth, an ancient fortress of the Je'daii Order, an organization that had preceded the Jedi Order and which Rajivari had helped reform into the latter. The fortress's name was a Je'daii word meaning "sanctum." To that end, Par sent her Padawan to travel to the ruins of Kaleth and retrieve the mysterious "first blade" in order to locate the Fount before Raloch, who she believed would also be looking for it. Among the ruins of Kaleth, the Consular found a grave containing the remains of the Weapon Master, an ancient Je'daii Master and the creator of the First Blade, the weapon that had served as the foundation of all modern lightsabers. The hilt of the First Blade had been hidden among the remains of the Weapon Master and had been guarded all those millennia by ancient Tythonian War Droids. In order to be allowed access to the hilt, one of those droids instructed the Consular to undertake the challenges the Weapon Master had devised for his students to prove their combat prowess. The Padawan defeated a number of training droids near Kaleth and was granted access to the hilt, which appeared heavily modified and contained data encrypted in it by Rajivari. As the Jedi reported that discovery to Master Par, the latter started to believe that the Force itself had intervened in the training of her Padawan and was now guiding the training process, an opinion which&mdash;as the Padawan later discovered in a meeting with Masters Syo Bakarn and Jaric Kaedan&mdash;was not shared by the Jedi Council.

The Padawan delivered the hilt of the First Blade to Par, who informed her apprentice that after further analysis of Rajivari's hologram, she had found out that the hilt needed to be taken into a cave in the nearby mountains, which had once served as the meeting place for the very first Jedi Council. Once brought inside the cave, the hilt would then supposedly point to the location of the Fount. Fess, who was once again present during the conversation, stated that he would assist Par and the Padawan in their search and departed from the Jedi Temple to the cave with a head start. After making way to the cave, the young Jedi fought through some Flesh Raiders inside and reached the cave's end, locating a number of ceremonial carvings and a pile of bones. The Consular also met Fess there, who agreed to share "Jagannath points" with the Jedi for their "hunt." The Padawan did not understand what the Trandoshan was talking about, so Fess explained to the Jedi that Jagganath points were a concept of the Trandoshan religion that he adhered to. A Trandoshan was granted Jagganath points for each kill by the goddess known as the Scorekeeper. Removing the pile of bones, the Consular discovered an ancient pedestal, which contained an alcove the same shape as the First Blade.

However, a trio of Twi'lek Pilgrims from the Kalikori village, led by a female called Allia, entered the cave. The Pilgrims, who were working for Raloch, demanded that the Consular handed the hilt to them, but the Jedi was able to convince them that Raloch had been corrupted by his thirst for power, and the Twi'leks left peacefully. Inserting the hilt inside the pedestal, the Consular was presented with another recording of Rajivari, discovering that the Jedi Master and the three fellow founders of the Jedi Order had become members of the very first Jedi Council. However, Rajivari had had disagreements with the rest of the Jedi Council regarding which direction the fledgling Order should have been taken. Therefore, he had assembled an army of followers and had planned to assassinate his fellow Councilors in an attempt to rebuild the Order with his own set of principles. The image of Rajivari also provided the Consular with a map showing the way to the Fount, but the Padawan was unable to decipher the map's directions. Therefore, the Jedi and Fess returned to Master Par, who showed her apprentice a holographic recording she had received from Raloch. The Twi'lek had been set back in his search for the Fount after his fellow Pilgrims had failed to bring him the hilt, but he claimed to have knowledge of other ways to find Rajivari's archive, and he threatened to kill the Consular should the latter try to stop him.

Par, her student, and Fess analyzed a set of three coordinates shown in Rajivari's map. They were able to decipher two of them, but the third one, which looked like a rock formation, was unfamiliar to both Par and the Padawan. However, Fess stated that during his hunting trips, he had seen similar markings around a nearby cave located behind a waterfall. The Trandoshan told the two that he would investigate the area in an attempt to find something that could help their search. The map's code, however, also contained a warning that the path to the Fount of Rajivari was filled with numerous traps that only those who had knowledge of Rajivari's philosophies and who followed his steps could pass. Kaleth was known to have served as the fortress of Rajivari and his followers, and several computer terminals had been found earlier among the ruins. Believing that the terminals could be accessed using the hilt of the First Blade, the Consular traveled to Kaleth in hopes of finding some records of Rajivari's teachings in those terminals. The terminals indeed contained recordings made by Rajivari's apprentices. The Padawan discovered that Rajivari's attempts to kill the Jedi Council had failed, and the Jedi Order had besieged Kaleth in retaliation. Rajivari's followers had held the line to the end, but had been ultimately all killed, while their Master had abandoned them and had escaped. The young Jedi learned several of Rajivari's principles, which dictated that mercy was a foolish act and held strength in great esteem. Returning to Par, the Padawan discovered that Fess had not returned from his mission yet.

The Jedi traveled to the waterfall cave in search of the Trandoshan, encountering a band of hostile Twi'leks loyal to Raloch inside. Defeating them, the Consular found Fess and freed him from a cage, learning that he had deciphered the last coordinate. The Trandoshan explained that Raloch had tracked him, had captured him, and had questioned him on the location of the Fount. After he had refused to tell anything to Raloch, he had been visited by Master Par, who had asked for the final coordinate and had behaved very strangely. Confused, Fess had nevertheless told Par what he had discovered. However, the Consular realized that since the real Par had been at the Jedi Temple all that time, the image Fess had seen must have a been a Force trick employed by Raloch. With the knowledge of the final coordinate gained from Fess, the Consular was able to triangulate the location of the Fount, which turned out to be an ancient acropolis inside the ruins of an ancient city. Distraught at being captured alive, which was considered the greatest of humiliations in his religion and had resulted in him losing all of his Jagganath points, Fess decided to accompany the Consular in the search for Raloch, hoping to reclaim some of the honor he had lost. After defeating a large number of Flesh Raiders inside the acropolis, the Padawan and Fess faced the traps the map had mentioned. A series of visions manifested before the aspiring Jedi, presenting challenges associated with Rajivari's philosophies. The Jedi and Fess were able to pass all the challenges and finally reached the Fount of Rajivari. To the pair's surprise, they discovered that the spirit of Rajivari himself inhabited the Fount. Rajivari's stubbornness had allowed him to cheat death and to remain as a ghost inside his laboratory, where he had been waiting for a new apprentice who would bring his vision of the Jedi Order to life.

Rajivari informed the Padawan that Raloch had already visited the Fount and had left after learning from him. According to Rajivari, Raloch was greatly changed by the power he had discovered within the Fount, however, and was seeking to destroy the Jedi Order completely, starting with the Forge, an ancient machine used to make lightsabers. Rajivari realized the mistake he had made by teaching Raloch, explaining that the destruction of the Order was never his goal&mdash;he merely intended to rebuild it. The spirit of the Jedi Master asked the Consular to stop Raloch. In order to do so, Rajivari advised the Padawan to find a lightsaber crystal inside the caves leading to the Forge and then use that crystal to power the hilt of the First Blade, allowing the Padawan to create a fully-functional lightsaber at the Forge. Rajivari then became one with the Force, while the Consular and Fess departed toward the Forge. Passing through the caves leading to the ancient machine, the two found a crystal formation. However, when the Padawan tried to extract one of the crystals, the Jedi was attacked by a Dark Beast that guarded the caves. Having defeated the beast and gathered a green lightsaber crystal, the Padawan and the Trandoshan companion reached the Forge ahead of Raloch. While Fess stood guard, the Consular deeply concentrated and used the machine to create a working lightsaber.

Upon creating the lightsaber, the Consular barely had time to test it when Raloch appeared, escorted by Allia and another Twi'lek named Keth. Raloch's companions hesitated to follow their leader's plan of destroying the Forge, although Raloch tried to convince them that what he was doing was right. Ultimately, Allia and Keth decided to stay out of the fight as Raloch attacked the Consular. The Jedi defeated the fallen Twi'lek but spared his life, instead instructing him to go to the Jedi Temple, where his fate would be decided. After Allia and Keth took the wounded Raloch away, Fess approached the Consular. The Trandoshan was impressed by the Jedi's bravery and proclaimed that he would follow the Consular everywhere the latter would go, as Fess now considered the individual to be the "Herald of the Scorekeeper." The Padawan and Fess returned to the Jedi Temple to report on the mission's progress to the Jedi Council and Master Par. There, the Grand Master of the Order, Satele Shan, informed the two that Raloch had been undergoing kolto treatment after their battle. Believing the Consular ready to become a fully-fledged Jedi, Master Shan asked the latter to decide Raloch's fate as a final test. Believing in the possibility of the man's redemption, the Padawan instructed Raloch to be trained as a Jedi so that he could learn to control his burgeoning Force abilities. Following that decision, Par proclaimed her apprentice a full Jedi. However, in the midst of the ceremony, she suddenly fell ill. When Par was taken for treatment, Fess revealed that the woman had been suffering from her illness for a long time, but she had chosen to keep it in secret that only the Trandoshan had known about. It was decided to send Master Par to the galactic capital of Coruscant, in hopes that Jedi researchers&mdash;who were working on excavating the old Jedi Temple that had been ravaged during the Sacking of Coruscant&mdash;might find something to cure her. In the meantime, the Jedi on Tython would study the discoveries the Consular had made pertaining to the Fount of Rajivari. The newly appointed Jedi was then instructed to travel to Coruscant as well, in order to oversee Par's treatment.

The Noetikons
"The ritual is a difficult one to learn, Jedi, and will take many hours of deep meditation and study.''" "''I am ready, Master."

- Master Wole Vahn cautioning the Consular on the learning of the shielding technique

Embarking on the journey, the Consular and Fess first took a shuttle that brought them to Carrick Station, the main staging area of the Republic fleet. There, the pair were greeted by Kel Dor Jedi Master Ostar-Gal, the Keeper of the Jedi Archives and a close friend of Par's. Ostar-Gal advised the Jedi to seek out Master Dynaroth for the next phase of the Jedi's continuing training. Master Dynaroth, in turn, helped the Consular choose the path to follow, either that of a Jedi Sage or a Jedi Shadow. After arriving on Coruscant, following the instructions the Consular and Fess had been provided on Tython, they traveled to the Senate Building and met with Attros Finn, a Mirialan Jedi researcher who was tending to Par. The Jedi found Par in an unstable condition, seemingly talking nonsense about someone named Parkanas as well as a mysterious "Dark Man." Finn believed that the key to discovering the cure to Par's illness could be found within the Jedi Archives, but accessing the information was a problem, since the Temple currently laid in ruins. However, the Temple's artificers had created a set of three special holocrons, called the Noetikons, to sort through all the information contained within the Archives, with the personalities of the Order's greatest Masters imprinted in those holocrons. The Noetikons had been stolen from the Temple after it had been ransacked by the Sith, but Finn had a lead on one of the devices. Coruscant security had witnessed Gand scavengers from the Migrant Merchants' Guild, a shady refugee consortium, carrying a Noetikon. One of the Gand had been detained, but he refused to talk. The Consular and Fess then departed to the Old Galactic Market to speak with Republic officer Alec Efran, who had the Gand in custody, while Finn began working on finding a lead to the second artifact.

The Jedi confronted the Gand scavenger, persuading him to talk about the location of the Noetikon. The Gand revealed that a man named Lars Baddeg had given it to the leader of the Gand scavengers, Aulus G'luun, and had instructed him to keep the relic out of Jedi hands. To that end, G'luun had developed a system of special signals, which he issued from a signal station in the Old Galactic Market on occasion, passing the Noetikon from one Gand to another for safekeeping. The Consular and Fess managed to crack the Gands' code and summoned G'luun himself to a meeting place, convincing him to hand over the Noetikon, which turned out to be the Noetikon of Science. Its gatekeepers, Masters Tharis Orne, Arca Jeth and Vandar Tokare, scoured their vast library of scientific knowledge but were unable to find any clues regarding Par's sickness. Ruling out any medical sickness as a possible answer, they instead suggested to the Jedi to seek out the Noetikon of Light and ask its gatekeepers if they knew of any mystical illness that could fit the description. The Consular and Fess returned to Finn, who had in the meantime found a lead on the second Noetikon. His assistant, Pharen, had a sister who was working at the Silent Sun cantina in the Black Sun territory. Black Sun, a local criminal gang, had turned the cantina's back rooms into some sort of secret warehouse. Pharen's sister had seen the Noetikon among one of the shipments going inside the cantina.

The Jedi and Fess traveled through the dangerous Black Sun territory and reached the Silent Sun cantina, wherein they met a Human Doctor called Maer. The Doctor explained to them that Black Sun had been smuggling contraband offworld inside people's bodies. According to one of the patients, Curt Willham, not long ago the Justicars' Brigade, a local Coruscant vigilante organization, had started paying large sums of credits to the Black Sun for their smuggling services. Baddeg, mentioned previously by the Gand, was one of the Justicars, paying the Black Sun to take Jedi artifacts&mdash;and the Noetikon in particular&mdash;offworld. However, the smugglers carrying the artifacts had started hurting badly from the contraband implanted inside of them and some of them were even dying. To make matters worse, they could not get the necessary paperwork to travel from Coruscant, so many smugglers were still inside the cantina, with Doctor Maer desperately trying to save their lives. The Doctor had discovered a magnetic ID tag printed on one of the artifacts that he had extracted, so he realized that the Black Sun had a special scanner with which they were able to identify the smugglers carrying the relics. The Consular found one of the scanners inside the cantina and used it to identify the man carrying the Noetikon inside of him. The Jedi helped the man by undoing the surgery using Maer's medical equipment, and extracted the Noetikon from his body. The Jedi then activated the Noetikon of Light, consulting Masters Noab Hulis, Wole Vahn, and Nomi Da'Boda, but they had no information on the cure as well. As a final desperate measure, the gatekeepers directed the Consular and the Trandoshan to the last Noetikon, the Noetikon of Secrets, warning the pair about the dark secrets that the third Noetikon possessed.

The Jedi was then contacted by Finn, who informed the Consular that Par's condition had deteriorated and she had even attacked Pharen. Finn had her restrained, but he asked the Consular and Fess to return to the Senate Building and hopefully calm her down. The duo found the ill Jedi Master agitated, willing to hurt someone. Clearly not having control of herself, Par activated her lightsaber and attacked her former student. The latter was able to defeat the Jedi Master and knocked her unconscious. Realizing that Par's condition worsened with every minute, the Consular and Fess traveled to the Justicar territory in search of the final Noetikon. There, they located Baddeg, who revealed that he was working for someone else, after that person had promised to give him rule over the entire Justicar territory if he managed to smuggle the Noetikons to them. Seemingly giving up on his cause when confronted, Baddeg told the Consular to simply take the final Noetikon. However, when the latter activated it, the Jedi and the Jedi's Trandoshan companion appeared in a room filled with white light. An entity calling itself the Master of Questions explained that the Noetikon was a fake and that something had gone wrong when it was activated, resulting in the Jedi's consciousness being transported to that place of nothingness. The Master of Questions agreed to let the Jedi go, provided the latter answered three questions correctly. However, should the individual answer wrong, the Jedi would be trapped inside forever.

The Consular answered the questions correctly and was able to escape from Baddeg's trap, witnessing him talking to a a Sith, certain that he had dealt with his unwanted visitors. From their conversation, the Jedi and Fess learned that the Sith was merely a servant of another Master. However, once the Sith saw the Consular and Fess unscathed, he instructed Baddeg to kill them. The Justicar tried to follow the command, but the pair defeated him and retrieved the real Noetikon of Secrets. Its gatekeepers were named Jesper Altax, Bastila Shan and Chamma; all of them had once turned to the dark side but had been able to return to the light. Their knowledge of dark side secrets helped the Jedi and the Trandoshan to finally learn more about Par's illness. It had been encountered by the Jedi Order before only once. A Sith Lord named Terrak Morrhage had created an illness called the Dark Plague that afflicted the minds of Jedi. Morrhage had used the plague to control the minds of his victims and turn them to the dark side by the hundreds, using the afflicted Jedi to fight the Order. Morrhage had been only stopped when a Jedi healer had developed a shielding technique, which could be used to break Morrhage's control on his victims. The healer had used the technique to sever the affected Jedi from Morrhage, one by one. However, each time he had used the technique, it had taken away some of his own strength, to the point that it had eventually cost the healer his life when he was done. The Consular realized that the only way to save Master Par was to learn the technique. In order to do so, according to the Noetikon of Secrets, the Jedi and Fess had to go to the Jedi Archives inside the ravaged Jedi Temple and use the combined knowledge of all three Noetikons there.

The Consular and Fess went through the Works, the industrial sector of Coruscant, and reached the Jedi Temple. Fighting their way through Imperial forces that had been searching the Temple for a valuable Republic navigation computer, the duo reached the Jedi Archives. Upon activating the three Noetikons using a special terminal, all nine holographic Jedi Masters appeared before the pair, and, after deep meditation on the Consular's part, taught the Jedi the shielding technique. Right afterward, however, the Sith that Baddeg had spoken to earlier entered the Jedi Archives, intent on stopping the Jedi, before the latter could use the newly acquired skill to cure the afflicted Jedi Master. Upon entering, the Sith used Force lightning to destroy the terminal, effectively preventing future Jedi from ever learning the ritual. He then intended to kill the Consular, making the secret of the shielding technique be lost forever, thus allowing his master, the Sith behind the plague, to destroy the Jedi Order completely. The Jedi and Fess were then attacked by the Sith, accompanied by two Sith Acolytes, but managed to defeat them. The two were then contacted by Master Syo Bakarn, who had been overseeing the Consular's progress and who instructed the latter to hurry back to Master Par, as she was fading away with every minute. Returning to the Senate Building with Fess, the Jedi used the technique to shield Par from the plaguemaster's influence. Although she regained consciousness and felt considerably better, she was still not fully cured until the plaguemaster was defeated.

Curing the afflicted masters
The Jedi Council, gathered on Coruscant, summoned the Consular and Fess and informed them that Master Par's was not an isolated case, as other Masters had begun falling out of contact, supposedly falling victim to the plague. In order to stop the disease from spreading, the Sith controlling it had to be defeated, but the Jedi Order had no clue to his identity and no other plan but to shield the afflicted Masters and try to gather any clues from them. As such, the Jedi was asked by the Council to travel around the galaxy and use the newly acquired technique on the Masters. In order to do so, the Consular was provided with a personal starship, a Defender-class light corvette, as well as a personal onboard droid, C2-N2, a non-combat C2-N2 unit that served as a medic and ship's steward. After saying goodbye to Par, the Consular and Fess departed Coruscant on the newly acquired starship. The Consular was also contacted by Flight Commander Judin of the Republic Navy, who recruited the Jedi into the elite fighter squadron known as the Coruscant Aegis. The Coruscant Aegis was a brand new initiative created by Fleet Admiral Numinn that was intended to quickly deal with Imperial offensives around the galaxy. The Consular was given the call sign "Guardian," and the Jedi would fly a number of missions for the Coruscant Aegis over the course of the following years.

Into the wilds
"Too late, Jedi. You wandered too long, too long. But now the reactor will bathe Taris in fire. No black rock. No shadow. The Republic will not spread it! I can cleanse it here, cauterize the flow!"

- Master Cin Tykan, while afflicted by the plague

The Jedi's first assignment was to travel to the desolate world of Taris to locate the Kaleesh Master Cin Tykan. Once a great ecumenopolis, Taris had been ravaged by the Sith Lord Darth Malak during the Jedi Civil War more than three hundred years ago, reducing the planet to a devastated swampland populated by rakghoul mutants. A renowned scout, survival expert, and pathfinder, Tykan had been assisting the Republic efforts in the restoration of the planet, but he had recently gone silent and had stopped sending reports to the Jedi Council, leading them to believe that Tykan could have been affected by the plague. After landing on Taris, the Jedi and Fess were instructed by Master Bakarn to go to the Republic reclamation base at the city of Olaris and meet Tykan's Padawan Aris Vauranelle and Captain Nelex of the Republic Expeditionary Forces&mdash;whom Tykan had been working with&mdash;at the Expeditionary Forces' headquarters. Both of them were surprised to hear of Tykan's possible illness, explaining that the Jedi Master had recently left with a research expedition on a mission to take pollution readings and had displayed no signs of the plague. The expedition was not due to return in days but Vauranelle contacted it just in case. The expedition's Republic guardsman, Sergeant Valoy, answered to the hails, claiming that the rest of the expedition was gone and requesting backup, before the transmission was cut off. Assuming that something had gone wrong but unable to assemble a rescue team in time, Nelex gave the Consular the expedition's last known coordinates.

Arriving at the marked location in the Republic Resettlement Zone, however, the Jedi and Fess found only a lone utility droid, before being attacked by a group of assassins from the Death's Claw pirate organization. After defeating them, the Jedi spoke to T8-C3, the expedition's survey droid that was in the area, which informed the Consular and the Trandoshan that the expedition had gone offtrack and had been attacked by the Death's Claw. Most of the expedition had been killed with the exception of Tykan himself and a small survey team, who had left before the attack, carrying with them the expedition's findings, consisting of several medical holocrons and valuable relics. T8-C3 provided the pair with the survey team's coordinates and then went back to the Republic base. Arriving at the survey team's location in the Sinking City region, the Consular and Fess found the place in ruin, with two expedition members trapped under a large piece of debris. The Jedi used the Force to lift the object and freed the men, only to discover two more members, Laria Taphoni and Tal, clinging to their lives among the debris engulfed in fire. The Consular used the Force to levitate Tal back to safety and then proceeded to perform the same trick with Taphoni. By choosing to save the woman, however, the Jedi had to sacrifice the holocrons that had also been caught on fire, much to the dismay of the final surviving member of the expedition, Doctor Gatten Edaine, who had insisted on saving the relics instead of Taphoni.

Edaine, Taphoni and Tal explained to the Consular and Fess that after they had found the holocrons during their expedition, Tykan had decided to take them to the base as fast as possible, leaving the rest of the expedition behind at the ambush site. However, he had instead lured the survey team into a trap, had ignited the pollution and had left them to die, stating that he had been punishing them for letting Taris be ravaged three hundred years ago and that soon they would be joined by everyone at the Junction, an old purification facility retrofitted by the Republic to process poisonous gases. The Consular and Fess were then contacted by Nelex, who wanted Tykan brought to justice, while Padawan Vauranelle begged the Jedi not to hurt her Master. Traveling to the Junction, the duo met the factory's security chief and the clearly plague-affected Tykan. Like Par, the Master also spoke of a man named Parkanas, as well as the planet Malachor. He then proceeded to sabotage the main gas line and opened the factory's vents, letting swarms of rakghouls inside. That forced the Consular to choose to either repair the Junction&mdash;which was crucial in cleansing the planet&mdash;or saving the factory's workers from the rakghoul attack. The Jedi chose the latter and successfully evacuated a maintenance crew that had been trapped behind a blast door, by using the Force to tear the door open.

After the rest of the staff were evacuated from the areas filled with gas, the security chief thanked the Jedi and Fess and gave them some old Taris infrastructure charts that Tykan had been studying before he fell victim to the plague. The data was encrypted, so the chief instructed the Jedi to bring it to Captain Nelex back at the base, who could decipher it. Nelex himself contacted the Consular at the very same moment, stating that the Republic base was under attack, before the transmission was cut off. Trekking back to the base, the Jedi and Fess found it swarming with rakghouls, which, as Nelex explained, had been released when Tykan had uncovered the rakghoul tunnels beneath the base. The plague-affected Master had also taken his Padawan away. The Jedi and the Trandoshan first attempted to save the base by sealing the tunnels. The Jedi used the Force to collapse rocks in order to seal two secondary tunnels and then defeated a large rakghoul dubbed the "Ripclaw", before picking up a binary loadlifter with the Force and using it to collapse the cavern behind the main tunnel. With the base secure, Nelex was then able to decrypt the data provided by the Junction security chief. From those files, they discovered that Tykan had copied all files pertaining to one of Taris's still functional super-reactors. Sabotaging the reactor could potentially send it into meltdown and trigger a chemical detonation that could destroy the entire Republic reclamation area.

The Jedi and Fess went to the reactor's coordinates beneath Transport Station 5 and confronted Tykan and Vauranelle there. In his delirium, Tykan spoke of a Lord Vivicar, finally revealing the plaguemaster's name. Vauranelle, due to her affection and loyalty for her Master, had come to believe his mad ramblings about the necessity of sabotaging the Republic's reclamation efforts in order to stop their attempts to "destroy the natural beauty" of Taris, but the Consular convinced her to change her mind. The Jedi and Fess were then attacked by the angered Tykan but were able to defeat the Jedi Master. The Consular then used the shielding technique on him, freeing him from Vivicar's influence. Tykan was horrified by the atrocities he had committed and left for Tython to report to the Jedi Council and then to willingly turn himself in to the Republic authorities. After reporting back to Nelex for the last time, the Jedi contacted Bakarn, informing him of the "Lord Vivicar" Tykan had mentioned, and the Jedi Master promised to start looking into that name. The Consular and Fess then left Taris, on the journey to save one more Jedi Master.

The Guiding Hand
"My, my. You've got Tharan Cedrax to care about something, Jedi. That's a gift I want on my side. Now. Serve me and&mdash;agghh! What the&mdash;? What is that thing?"

- Duras Fain, trying to take control of the Consular and Tharan Cedrax, before being stopped by Cedrax's exo-tech device

The Jedi's next stop was Nar Shaddaa, a lawless moon ruled by the Hutt Cartel, which had recently found itself clashing with an emerging criminal organization called the Guiding Hand. The Guiding Hand's members were fanatically loyal to their leader, who the Jedi Council suspected to be Master Duras Fain, another one of the affected Masters, one who possessed great skill of influencing others with the Force. Fain was known to hate illegal spice trade, so the Guiding Hand's repeated attacks on the Hutts' spice shipments, using tactics that the Jedi Master was known for, provided almost definite proof of Fain's involvement with the gang. The Hutt Cartel was an immensely powerful organization, which had so far been providing its assistance to the Republic, despite officially staying neutral and even allowing Imperial presence on Nar Shaddaa. Therefore, the Jedi Council placed utmost priority on stopping Fain, afraid that the Cartel might discover that a Jedi was involved in the attacks on their property and stop their support. Bakarn instructed the Consular to visit his contact on Nar Shaddaa, an exo-technologist and friend of both Bakarn and Fain named Tharan Cedrax. When the Consular and Fess arrived at Cedrax's office at the Promenade, however, the Jedi found that the man was not there. Instead, the pair were greeted by Holiday, Cedrax's female holographic assistant. Holiday informed the two that Cedrax had ventured into the Nikto Sector to deliver a weapon prototype he had been contracted to develop to Nikto gangsters.

Following Holiday's directions to the meeting place at Sawtooth Salvage, the Jedi and Fess found Cedrax arguing with several Nikto gang members. Having discovered that the Nikto were planning to use the weapon against the Hutt Cartel, Cedrax tried to call the deal off, afraid of the Hutts' vengeance should they discover who had invented the weapon. The Nikto turned out to be members of the Guiding Hand and attacked the Jedi and the Trandoshan. After defeating them, the Jedi spoke to Cedrax, telling him about the Council's suspicions of Fain's involvement with the Guiding Hand. Cedrax and the Consular decided that their best course of action was attempting to infiltrate the Guiding Hand. Cedrax then informed the Consular and Fess of the Red Light Lancers, an organization of tech specialists, who were rumored to be a part of the Guiding Hand. The Lancers had been trying to contract Cedrax to do a special job, so he decided to pretend to be interested in it in order to set up a meeting for the Consular. He also provided the Jedi with the weapon prototype in order to prove the individual's expertise to the Lancers, as well as an earpiece so that they could communicate privately. Cedrax also started working on finding a way to prevent Fain from using his mind control abilities on them when they would finally meet him.

The Lancers were delighted when Cedrax agreed to meet them, so the Consular and Fess soon went to the Lancers' safehouse in the Red Light Sector to meet with their Zabrak leader, Klage, telling him that Cedrax could not come and had sent them instead. The Zabrak gang leader was reluctant to hire the Consular for the job, since his orders were to get Cedrax specifically. However, after the Jedi gave him the weapon prototype and answered Klage's tech-related questions&mdash;using advice given by Cedrax through the earpiece&mdash;the Jedi was deemed expert enough and was accepted into the Red Light Lancers. Klage informed the Consular that the job the latter was hired for was to destroy spice factories shared by the Hutts and the Empire in the Lower Industrial Sector. The Jedi and Fess were instructed to go to the defense network control room there and disrupt the protocols on the primary control node, triggering the factories' automated defenses and killing everybody inside. Returning to Cedrax's office, the pair were informed by the scientist that there was a way to do the Lancers' job, using a Sith overseer's ID that Cedrax had recently obtained. Unwilling to kill innocent factory workers, however, the Consular demanded Cedrax to come up with an alternative approach. The exo-technologist decided to use a resonator key, a device that, when attached to the primary control node, would fake the network failure. Klage, who would be monitoring the network remotely, would then assume that automated defenses would have been activated as planned.

Using the Sith overseer's ID, the Consular and Fess were able to fool the factory security at the Lower Industrial Sector and reached the primary control node at the Defense Network Control Center. Attaching the resonator key was enough to fake the destruction of the factories to Klage, and the duo were contacted by the Lancers' leader. The two were informed by Klage that the Guiding Hand's Master was willing to meet with the new recruit inside the tech gang's quarters in the Red Light Sector. Arriving at the provided destination, the Consular and Fess discovered that the Guiding Hand was indeed led by Fain, who appeared via a hologram and ordered several Nikto Morgukai cultists present at the scene to kill the two. After the Morgukai were defeated, the Jedi Jedi was contacted by Cedrax, who directed the Consular to examine the holotransmitter Fain had used to contact them. Using slicing subroutines programmed into her by Cedrax, Holiday was able to trace Fain's signal to Shadow Town, an Imperial prison facility located on Nar Shaddaa. When the Consular and Fess returned to Cedrax's office to develop a plan to infiltrate Shadow Town, the two found a Hutt Cartel enforcer confronting Cedrax. Rumors of a Jedi's involvement with the Guiding Hand had reached the Hutt Cartel, and as Cedrax had been spotted working with the Consular, the Cartel suspected that the latter could be the Jedi they were looking for. The Jedi was able to persuade the enforcer otherwise and resolved the conflict peacefully.

After the thug left, promising to keep watching the two's actions, the Consular and Cedrax discussed their next move. The scientist presented the Jedi with an exo-tech device that he had developed in conjunction with Bakarn. The device was designed to block Fain's mind control powers by paralyzing the part of the forebrain that became active when a Jedi tried to exert his influence upon their target. The Jedi Knight and Cedrax then departed for Shadow Town, fighting through Imperial soldiers. Infiltrating the Imperial guard tower, Cedrax used his expertise to disable security cameras throughout the sector, while the Jedi distracted the guards. The duo then infiltrated Security Checkpoint 14, where Cedrax cut the power to Fain's hideout. The two were spotted by an Imperial guard, but the Jedi once again was able to resolve the matter in a non-violent way. When they finally confronted Fain after battling a number of his gang members, the Jedi Master told the Consular about an expedition to Malachor III that he and the other affected Jedi had participated in in their youth. Fain claimed that the Jedi had been affected by the dark side aura of the planet, with him and Par having a romantic affair there. During that mission, one of their fellow Jedi, a man named Parkanas Tark had been left behind when the other Jedi had tried to evacuate from the planet. Fain then tried to exercise his mind control powers on the Consular and Cedrax, but that failed thanks to Cedrax's device. The plague-affected Fain attacked the two, but the Jedi defeated Fain and his guards. Before the Consular could shield Fain, however, a Hutt Cartel enforcer, Vorlo Stragen, arrived, demanding to have Fain handed to the Hutts. The Jedi was able to negotiate with the Cartel to let the Jedi have Fain and then used the shielding technique, freeing Fain from Vivicar's influence. After Fain promised to return to Tython, the Consular and Cedrax parted ways.

Answering a distress call
"Laranna, my child, my appr&mdash;Jedi. So, you have robbed me of a most promising student. As if that will delay the inevitable. You Jedi are an endless source of amusement."

- Expecting to speak with Laranna, Vivicar meets the Consular for the first time

However, as the Jedi and Fess were returning to their ship to report to Master Bakarn, the two found Cedrax and his holographic assistant waiting for the Jedi in the hangar. Finding all of his current contracts boring and spurred by the encounter with Fain, Cedrax wanted to travel the galaxy and seek adventure, so he decided to join the Consular's crew. Having welcomed Cedrax aboard, the Consular contacted Bakarn, who congratulated the Jedi on the expert handling of the conflict between the Hutt Cartel and the Guiding Hand. However, a new urgent matter had arisen. The Jedi Council had received a distress signal from the Republic Ajuur-class heavy cruiser Carida, related to the plague. The ship was carrying a Jedi Knight named Laranna Fain, Duras Fain's daughter, aboard. Reports by the Republic forces aboard the Carida stated that the young Fain had gone insane and had killed several people. Docking with the Carida, the Consular and one of his companions met with the few remaining Republic soldiers let by Lieutenant Bela Whinn. She explained that the ship had been caught in an Imperial ambush. Laranna had fought off the attackers, but had been wounded in the process. When the Republic soldiers had put up a call for medical assistance, a mysterious man had arrived to the Carida, claiming to be a Jedi Master. He had healed Laranna and had left, but the girl had changed after their encounter. She had become violent, killing several people and reprogramming the droids aboard the Carida to attack everyone else in sight. Whinn and the remaining soldiers had managed to lock her down in the ship's aft section, but Laranna had started slicing into the ship's computer system, planning to shut down life support and kill everyone aboard.

The Consular and the companion fought through Laranna's droids and confronted the young woman, who revealed that the man who had healed her was indeed Lord Vivicar, just as the Consular had suspected. The pair had to fight Fain, but defeating her was not enough. The girl Force-pushed the Jedi away and locked herself inside an airlock, threatening to open the outer door and commit suicide. However, the Consular was able to convince Laranna to leave the airlock and used the shielding technique on her. Laranna, no longer influenced by the plague, but still not trusting herself, locked herself down in the brig until the Carida would reach the nearest port. Meanwhile, a holographic message came to the Carida from Lord Vivicar himself. The Sith tried to contact Laranna, but seeing the Consular, he realized that his plan had failed. From the conversation with Vivicar, the Jedi learned that the Sith was once a member of the Jedi Order himself, before embracing the teachings of Morrhage, and that&mdash;as the Jedi Council already suspected&mdash;his control of the plague was limited. Vivicar could only control those he had had personal contact with throughout his lifetime. Leaving Whinn to take control of the Carida and to bring Fain to Coruscant, the Jedi and the companion returned to their own ship and reported to Master Bakarn, who had more unfortunate news. Two more Jedi Masters had gone silent, both mentioning in their last reports that the "darkness was coming," something the other plague-affected Masters had kept repeating as well.

Vossan's warriors
"We were all weak. We all came under the thrall of the dark side. We did things we regretted. But Parkanas was our strength. As we tried to escape, I fell behind, and he ran back to save me. He became trapped&mdash;we had to leave him. It was my weakness that killed him."

- Eriz Vossan remembers the ill-fated mission to Malachor Three

The Jedi's next assignment took the Jedi and the Consular's companions to the desert planet of Tatooine, where Master Eriz Vossan, one of the Order's best cultural explorers, had dropped out of contact with the Council. The Consular was told by Bakarn to contact Rowan Delk, the man who had served as Master Vossan's guide through the desert and who was now recovering from the Sand Rot, an illness caused by prolonged desert exposure, at the Dreviad Outpost. Master Vossan's research on the various cultures of the galaxy was considered vital to the Order, so the Consular and a companion embarked on the search for the Jedi Master immediately. Conversing with Delk inside the Dreviad Medcenter, the pair were assured by the man that Vossan had not displayed any signs of the plague and was last seen talking to the local Jawa species in one of their camps in the desert, impressed by their ability to survive in the harsh environment of the planet. Upon arriving at the Ut'ttailri Jawa Camp, the Jedi and the companion were attacked by war droids. After destroying them, the two spoke with one of the Jawas, Tteek Tlek. The diminutive creature said that Master Vossan&mdash;whom the Jawas had dubbed the "Warmaker"&mdash;had instructed the Jawas to dismantle their camp's sandcrawler and use its parts to build the war droids to conquer the settlement of Anchorhead and to fight the Sand People&mdash;a nomadic Tatooine species&mdash;in order to take control of the desert. However, Vossan had then abandoned the Jawas, leaving only a message that they could not decipher and that was intended for Delk. Now, however, the Jawas had neither the sandcrawlers, nor the droids, as the latter had been destroyed by the Consular. As the sandcrawler was crucial to the Jawas' survival, since they used the vehicle to trade, the Jawas had tried to fix it by taking parts from other sandcrawlers, but those spare parts had been stolen by the Geonosian raiders who had spread around Tatooine. The Consular agreed to help Tlek fix the machines, retrieved the spare parts from the Geonosians and was given the coded message in gratitude.

The Consular and the Jedi's companion returned to Delk's clinic, and the man was able to crack the holorecording's code. Master Vossan stated that he had been looking to find out the answer as to how the species of Tatooine were able to survive such hostile environment, in hopes of finding a way to live through the "great darkness." He also spoke of a cave where he loved to meditate. During one of such meditations, he had seen that he had been wrong to seek the answers from the Jawas and had instead gone to try to find luck with the "original species" of Tatooine, although he did not mention which species that was. Delk provided the Consular with the location of the cave Vossan had spoken about and some signal flares to light the way. Inside the cave in the Jundland Chasm, the Consular lit several torches surrounding a Sand People carving. In the light of the torches, the carving revealed that the Sand People were the original people of Tatooine. Contacting Delk via a holocommunicator, the Consular explained the situation to the man, and the latter said that if Vossan had indeed gone to the Sand People, "the ultimate warriors," as he called them in his message, then it was worth looking into a group of Sand People who had become overly aggressive and attacked the nearby farming settlement of Malcolm's Dunes in the Dune Sea region.

There, the Consular and the Jedi's companion met Delk and the leader of the settlement, Hale Malcolm. The settlers were initially very aggressive toward the outsiders, since Vossan, the last Jedi they had helped by providing him with the coordinates of the Sand People's camp, had turned on them and had started sending the warrior people to attack them. However, the Consular convinced the farmers to provide help and Malcolm drew a map of the route to the Sand People camp in the Banthan Drifts area. The Jedi, the companion and Delk went to the camp to confront the ill Master, fighting through the Sand People, augmented and empowered by Vossan's influence. When the three finally found the Jedi Master himself, Vossan tried to convince the Consular that the Jedi Order should follow the Sand People's teachings&mdash;to abandon the weak and value strength only&mdash;before attacking them. The Consular and the companion fought the Jedi Master and emerged victorious, finding more details about the mission to Malachor Three, which was turning out to be clearly connected to Vivicar. The Jedi Masters who had been there had uncovered some terrible evil and had been affected by it. As they had tried to escape, Vossan had fallen behind, and Parkanas Tark had saved him, but he had become trapped in the process and had been left behind by the other Jedi. The Consular shielded the Jedi Master, but his research on the Sand People still remained. Vossan effectively possessed knowledge on how to create an unstoppable army, and he consulted the Consular on what the Jedi should do with it. Believing that the knowledge was too dangerous and was against everything the Republic stood for, the Consular advised Vossan to destroy his records.

Around that time, Fess, still feeling shame over losing his Jagganath points, asked the Consular to pay tribute to his father's remains, thinking that doing so would please the Scorekeeper. Fess's father, a great hunter, had died years ago at the Dune Sea. Once the pair arrived at the resting place, the two were confronted by a young Trandoshan hunter, Lek Svaal. Svaal had been hunting a creature called the Dusk Shadow on Tatooine. He had laid a scent trail to the remains of Fess's father and had planted a trap rigged with explosives, an act dishonorable of a hunter in Fess's opinion. However, the Dusk Shadow attacked at that moment, making Svaal run away in horror. The Jedi and Fess killed the beast, and Fess completed his ritual at his father's grave. With the Trandoshan feeling much more at peace, the pair left Tatooine.

The peace summit
"Master Sidonie just checked in. She seems well, but very frustrated with herself. She reports that you were able to prevent war from breaking out on Alderaan, however. You've once again done very good work in a tense situation, Jedi"

- Master Syo Bakarn commends the Jedi on the latter's work on Alderaan

The Jedi and the Consular's crew proceeded to fly to Alderaan, a former member world of the Republic now embroiled in a civil war after both Queen Silara Panteer and crown prince Gaul Panteer had died and a noble named Bouris Ulgo had usurped the throne. Master Sidonie Garen had been working on Alderaan to organize a peace treaty between the noble houses of Alderaan, in an attempt to stop the war. However, she had raised the Jedi Council's suspicions by dropping out of contact for some time, so the Consular was assigned to contact her. The Jedi and a companion started the mission on Alderaan by talking to Hallam Organa, the head of House Organa's diplomatic corps, who had been working closely with Garen. Organa contacted Garen, who was already at the peace summit's location, which was to be held at a secret meeting place, but she declined to let the Consular come speak to her, stating that only representatives of the Houses were allowed to come to the meeting. The Organa delegate was already at the summit, but Hallem Organa and his brother Lew advised the Jedi to become representative of one of the lesser Houses, like House Teral, which was desperate to find a delegate after theirs had been murdered. In addition to that, the Teral had been torn between the attacks by House Ulgo and the native Killiks.

The Consular and the Jedi's companion traveled to the Teral residence, and, after helping Captain Theress and the rest of House Teral's security force fend off an Ulgo attack, which even included some Ulgo-controlled Killiks, the two were granted audience with the leader of the House, Lord Teral. The Jedi asked to be made the House's delegate, but there were complications to that. In its current state, House Teral was extremely weak and unable to fend off Ulgo attacks. They planned to form an alliance with the Organa through a marriage between Lord Teral's daughter, Fasha Teral, and Lew Organa, but the Teral needed to prove to the Organa that they had the ability to defend themselves against their enemies first. To this end, Lord Teral asked the Jedi and the companion to go to the commander of Ulgo's forces that besieged House Teral, Astar Vox, a mercenary who was known for being relatively honorable for his profession. The Teral hoped to sway Vox to their side and break the siege. When the pair attempted to negotiate with Vox at his camp, the mercenary maintained that the Jedi had to prove themselves in battle first. The Jedi and the Jedi's companion successfully fought off all the enemies Vox sent to fight them and convinced the mercenary to work for House Teral. However, the pair were then informed that the prospect of the marriage alliance was at stake, as Lew Organa had been kidnapped by House Rist, Ulgo's allies and a well-known organization of assassins.

The duo rescued Lew Organa from a House Rist Bunker in the Alsakan Lowlands, and the young man decided to check the Rist's holoterminal in order to find out who had hired the assassins to kidnap him. Lew had heard his kidnappers mentioning Master Garen, but he was not sure what she had to do with the kidnapping. The Jedi, the companion and Lew indeed found Master Garen's holofrequency inside the terminal and were able to contact her, indicating that she was responsible for the kidnapping, although she denied her involvement. Upon returning to the House Teral residence, the Consular was finally named the official representative of the House and was provided with a set of coordinates and a data spike that belonged to the murdered delegate. Lord Teral also asked the Jedi to demand the representatives at the summit to strip House Ulgo of their power, in retaliation for what they had done to the Teral. Traveling to the set of coordinates at the Silvan Hills, the new Teral delegate found a shuttle and a computer terminal there. After using the data spike at the terminal, the Consular was taken to the summit's location at the Sendoth Ruins via the pre-programmed shuttle.

Even despite being House Teral's official delegate, the Consular and the Jedi's crewmember were detained by the summit's guards on the orders of Garen. After making way past them, the pair finally reached the summit, where the plague-affected Jedi Master had already proceeded with her plan. Her mind clouded, she believed that the only way to stop the coming darkness was to have war last on Alderaan for fifty years, so she brought incriminating evidence on each of the Houses to the summit, reminding them of old grudges and spurring escalation of the conflict. When the Consular managed to calm the delegates down, the enraged Garen attacked the Jedi and the Consular's ally, unleashing her Force powers, but the two bested her in combat. In her plague-affected state of mind, the defeated Garen revealed that she felt responsible for the loss of Tark on Malachor, since she was the one who had developed their failed plan of escape from the planet. After hearing that, the Jedi once again used the shielding technique, saving Garen. The Consular then advised the delegates to declare truce and reconvene at a later time to discuss peace. Unwilling to break the fragile truce, the Consular did not ask to strip the Ulgo of their noble status, much to Lord Teral's disappointment, although the promise of peace made the latter hopeful that the Jedi was right in their decision. The Consular reported to Master Bakarn as usual, and was asked to come to Tython. Now that the last of the known plague-infected Masters had been shielded, the Council decided that it was time to direct all of their efforts into finding Vivicar himself.

Around that time, Fess&mdash;who had at the time been undergoing the shko-yagu, a ritual signifying his transition over the halfway point of his life&mdash;had received a message from Svaal, the hunter they had met on Tatooine, regarding a potential prosperous hunt on Alderaan, and he asked the Scorekeeper's Herald to accompany him. Inside the Pallista Spaceport, the pair met Svaal, accompanied by several Wookiees, led by the one named Gwarror. In revenge of the long history of enslavement of Wookiees by the Trandoshans, Gwarror had been hunting Trandoshans for years, killing those weakened by the shko-yagu. He had used Svaal to lure Fess to Alderaan, although Svaal had not told Gwarror that Fess would be accompanied by a Jedi. After dealing with the Wookiees, the Consular and Fess spoke to Svaal, who revealed that he had witnessed Gwarror receiving a list of targets to kill from a Trandoshan named Veneb. Infuriated that one of his own species was a traitor, Fess was determined to hunt down that Veneb. Soon after the Consular departed Alderaan, the wedding of Lew Organa and Fasha Teral took place. Although protocol prevented the couple from inviting the Jedi to their wedding, Fasha later sent the Jedi a letter, thanking the latter for the help.

Battle with the plaguemaster
"I will crush you, Jedi, and your shattered body will fuel my rebirth!"

- Vivicar gloats to the Jedi Consular

Connecting the pieces of information from the afflicted Masters, the Jedi Consular realized that the common link between all the victims of the plague was that they had all participated in the mission to Malachor Three. In a clear act of revenge, Vivicar made them all relieve the horrors they had experienced there and had forced them to remember of Tark in their plague-induced madness, so the Consular believed that Vivicar was Tark. Reporting back to the Jedi Council on Tython, the Jedi informed the Masters of Vivicar's identity. Par then stepped out to finally reveal what she had been hiding all those years. Malachor III was not just a dark world, it was the resting place of Terrak Morrhage, the original creator of the plague, lending more proof to the Consular's theory regarding Vivicar's real persona. Par also developed a plan to locate Vivicar. Using her former Padawan's shielding ability, she hoped to invert the link between herself and the Sith Lord, in order to sense his location. The Consular and Par performed the ritual inside a meditation chamber, but in the process, Vivicar took full control of Par's actions and attacked the Jedi. Forced to duel the Consular's former Master, the Jedi defeated her. Weakened from the Sith influence, Par was still able to relay Vivicar's location&mdash;a ship drifting in deep space in the distant Outer Rim region, as well as the codes to get aboard. The Consular then shielded the woman once again, breaking the link.

Tracking Vivicar to his ship, a Harrower-class dreadnought, the Jedi and a companion fought through a number of brainwashed Republic soldiers, killing the leaders of the controlled Republic squads to weaken Vivicar's influence, and reached the Sith Lord on the ship's bridge. Vivicar explained to the Consular that his plague not only allowed him to control the Jedi Masters through direct contact, it had also siphoned their power from them, even from far away. Through certain rituals, Vivicar could harness that power, potentially becoming the most powerful Force-user in the galaxy. In fact, Vivicar was merely a vessel for the spirit of Morrhage, who had been controlling the Lord's actions since the ill-fated expedition to Malachor. The Consular and the Jedi's companion fought Vivicar in a duel and won, but Vivicar revealed that hundreds of Jedi Masters were still falling victim to the plague with each passing moment. Should the Consular kill him, the plague would be stopped forever, but those Jedi, even those who had been shielded, would die as they were still bound to Vivicar. The Jedi chose another option, using the shielding technique on Vivicar himself, and freeing him from the spirit of Morrhage. The spirit of Morrhage was severely weakened without a physical body, and it disappeared, vowing to exact his revenge when he eventually regained his strength. Still, the Sith Lord's connection to the Jedi Masters was broken and the threat of the Dark Plague was dealt with, for that time. Without the influence of Morrhage, Vivicar regained his identity as Tark and promised to go into exile on Tython.

The Consular returned to Tython as well, where the Jedi was recognized for all the effort in saving the Jedi Order and stopping Vivicar and was granted the title of Barsen'thor, a Cerean word meaning "Warden of the Order," a rare and distinguished title that only two Jedi had held in the millennia before. The Jedi Council informed the Consular that the Jedi's assistance would soon be required in relation to a new threat, but for now the Barsen'thor should take some rest. On the Jedi Council's advice, the Consular also recorded the information on the journey to stop Vivicar in a holoterminal in the Jedi Archives on Tython. With Vivicar no longer a threat, the Barsen'thor and company took the following several months to rest and reflect on their past experiences. Around this time, the newly christened Barsen'thor received a message from Tark. True to his word, Tark had returned to Tython to spend the rest of his days in exile. Although the Jedi Council had sought him out, he refused to speak to them, wishing to be left alone. The redeemed Jedi advised the Barsen'thor not to repeat his mistakes: to not succumb to anger, but neither be completely blinded by the light side.

Battle above Deralia
"The Republic is badly weakened. The Rift Alliance controls critical resources, armies, trade centers. If they leave, the Republic will die. ''" "''I refuse to believe there's no solution to this."

- The Supreme Chancellor and the Barsen'thor discuss the latter's mission, and how important it is that the latter succeeds

The Consular's and the Jedi's companions' rest was cut short when Master Bakarn contacted them, requesting the Jedi's presence on Tython, where an emergency meeting was supposed to take place, with Republic's Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus present over the hololink. The Chancellor informed the Barsen'thor that the Republic was on the brink of collapse. Strained by the ongoing Cold War, many worlds threatened secession. A small league of dissidents had emerged, calling themselves the Rift Alliance. Members of the Rift Alliance represented planets whose infrastructure was crucial to the Republic's survival. Therefore, the Barsen'thor was assigned as the Chancellor's personal liaison to the Rift Alliance and was instructed to do anything possible to convince its members to stay with the Republic. However, as such an important task could not be delegated to someone less of a Jedi Master, the Barsen'thor was promoted to that rank in the Chancellor's presence. The newly elevated Jedi Master was then assigned a first mission: Several representatives of the Rift Alliance had been convinced by the Chancellor to be guests aboard a Republic flagship, the Valor-class cruiser Fortitude, and the Barsen'thor was asked to meet them there.

Upon arriving near the Fortitude, however, the Jedi Master was contacted by Nadia Grell, the daughter of Tobas Grell, the Senator of the planet Sarkhai and one of the members of the Rift Alliance. Nadia told the Barsen'thor that the ship had been captured by the Sith, who had killed the ship's crew and had taken the Alliance's representatives hostage. The Sith had sealed off the bridge, but Nadia gave directions to a console aboard the ship that could be used to override the command. The Consular and a companion boarded the cruiser and fought through the attackers, making way to the console and unlocking the ship's bridge, discovering along the way that the Sith had sabotaged the ship to crash into the nearby planet of Deralia. Arriving at the bridge, the two eventually found the Sith boarding party's leader, Arrax, held at blasterpoint by Nadia, who was trying to protect her father. Arrax revealed that he was working for a Sith named Lord Kyrus and attacked the Jedi. The Jedi and the Consular's companion killed Arrax and saved the politicians, yet the Fortitude was still plunging toward Deralia, and there was seemingly no way to stop it. Tobas Grell suggested changing the course to Deralia's uninhabited moon of Aderalis, which would buy them some extra time to escape. However, Nadia was against the proposal, afraid that crushing the ship into the moon would affect Deralia's tides, which would have potentially catastrophic consequences for Deralia's population. Instead, she suggested using the Fortitude manual controls to steer the ship into Deralia's orbit. The Barsen'thor went with Nadia's option and fought through the remaining Sith troops led by Arrax's minion Tasandra to the ship's control section, where the Jedi and the Rift Alliance representatives worked together to operate the ship's engines.

The plan worked, and the Fortitude successfully entered Deralia's orbit. The Rift Alliance members then transferred to the Consular's ship, which from that point on essentially became their base of operations. The group, in addition to the Grells, consisted of trade secretary Tai Cordan of Balmorra, Senator Alauni of Saleucami, representative Diab Duin of Aeten II, representative Shuuru of Manaan and representative Augin Blaesus of the Erigorm Bureaucracy. In order to have them prove that the Republic cared about the members of the Rift Alliance, the group asked the Barsen'thor to help Cordan's factory world of Balmorra be freed from Imperial control. Cordan assured the Consular that once the Empire was off his planet, Balmorra would join the Republic and bring its vast battle droid factories to assist its war effort. Cordan, Balmorra's former trade secretary&mdash;who now had governmental seniority after all the higher-ranking officials had been either killed or expelled from the planet, and the current president's whereabouts were unknown&mdash;planned to become the planet's president after its liberation. To proceed with his liberation plan, Cordan planned to contact a revolutionary code-named "Zenith," an influential member of the Balmorran resistance.

Liberator of Balmorra
Arriving on Balmorra and using a number of secret communication protocols around the Republic Farnel Outpost, the Barsen'thor and a companion contacted Zenith via a holocomm from the Republic settlement of Bugtown. The Twi'lek revolutionary was reluctant to help Republic representatives, believing that the Republic had failed to help his world before, and he asked the Barsen'thor to prove if the Jedi was truly determined to free the planet by locating the Imperial head of manufacture, Trabier, inside the Okara Droid Factory in the Markaran Plains region. Zenith was unable to apprehend the chief himself because the man was being protected by a powerful bodyguard named Lerek Serrus, a young Sith apprentice to Darth Lachris, the Sith-appointed Governor of the planet. Confronting Trabier and his bodyguard inside the factory, the Barsen'thor convinced Serrus to stand down and abandon the dark side by reminding the man of his family. Serrus left Trabier alone, allowing Zenith, who had secretly infiltrated the facility, to wound the chief with a shot from a sniper rifle. The revolutionary wanted the man dead, but the Barsen'thor insisted on keeping the Imperial alive, convincing Zenith to take the man prisoner. Now believing that the Jedi was indeed trying to help his planet, Zenith smuggled Cordan and his entourage into a safe house in Bugtown, from which the Balmorran resistance began planning their next strike. The first step of Cordan's and Zenith's plan to liberate their planet was to gain support of Balmorra's powerful corporations.

The Barsen'thor and a companion were sent to meet with Director Fenn of the Troida Corporation, who spoke for the rest of the corporations. The Jedi met Fenn inside an old records vault in the Gorinth Canyon. After destroying the Imperial droids that were watching the Director, the duo were able to speak to the man. Fenn agreed to have the corporations join Cordan's cause, but he demanded that the Jedi Order stopped interfering in Balmorra's production of certain illegal weapons. Although Zenith contacted the Barsen'thor, informing the Jedi of the fact that the resistance knew where to find Fenn's wife and daughter and offering to use the two as leverage in the negotiations, the Consular found a neutral solution, promising Fenn that the Jedi control would be scaled back but not completely removed, securing the deal. Fenn then stated that he would provide the resistance with secret stockpiles of blueprints, credit accounts and weapons. The Troida leader gave the Jedi passwords that would allow the resistance to access terminals scattered throughout the Sith-occupied city of Sobrik, as those terminals contained encrypted data on the locations of the stockpiles. As instructed by Fenn, after obtaining that data, the Consular and the Jedi's companion took it to a cyborg named Benx in the Sunken Sarlacc cantina in Sobrik to decrypt and transmit the data to Cordan. Benx was initially afraid to help the Jedi, since he had been forced to use his computerized brain to constantly work for Darth Lacris, and stopping for even one moment from transmitting data streams for her could mean a lot of pain for him as punishment. However, the Barsen'thor showed the cyborg certain Jedi techniques, teaching the man how to process several data streams at once, allowing Benx to successfully decrypt Fenn's data and transmit it to Cordan without alerting Darth Lachris.

Upon returning to the resistance bunker, the Jedi was contacted by Bakarn, who complimented the Barsen'thor on the successful negotiations with the corporations, although Bakarn was doubtful if limited Jedi control would be enough to hold the corporations at bay. With the corporations' support, Cordan was now ready to proceed with the next part of his plan&mdash;saving the current president, Retheus Galthe, in order to have him hand the control of the planet to Cordan. Galthe was rumored to be ill and had not been seen for a long time, with Darth Lachris claiming to act on his behalf. However, Zenith appeared with worrying news. Darth Lachris had made a public holographic announcement, claiming that in response to the Balmorran Resistance's attacks, Galthe had issued Executive order 228. According to it, numerous civilians allegedly associated with the resistance had been rounded, imprisoned inside an Imperial Holding Facility in Camp Conquest located in the Gorinth Canyon and were scheduled to be executed soon. Despite realizing that the announcement was an obvious trap meant to catch the insurgents, the Jedi decided that rescuing the civilians was paramount. While Zenith's men engaged the Imperials, drawing them away from the holding facility, the Barsen'thor and a companion, using coordinates provided by the revolutionary, disabled a number of generators powering force fields that protected the entrance to the facility. With the force fields down, the two were able to infiltrate the facility and rescue a number of civilians before the facility went in lockdown.

The pair were then contacted by Zenith, who informed the Barsen'thor that his men were taking heavy casualties, but they had set demolition charges around the holding facility, and the countdown had already started. Zenith urged the Jedi to hurry with the rescue mission, promising to escort the liberated civilians to a safe location before the transmission broke off. The Jedi and the companion fought through the Imperial guards and were eventually confronted by the facility's Head jailer Tarinn. Defeating the man and obtaining his ID card, the Jedi was able to use it to release the rest of the Balmorran prisoners and help them escape from the facility before it was destroyed, and the Barsen'thor contacted Cordan from a secure terminal at the nearby Lower Sundari Outpost. Zenith soon arrived at the outpost as well, along with one of the liberated prisoners, Voro Hesh. The man informed his saviors that he knew where President Galthe was being held, as he had seen the Imperials smuggle him in and out of the Balmorran Arms Factory in the Sundari Flatlands. Cordan asked the Barsen'thor to act quickly and rescue the President, before Lachris could move him out of the factory. Zenith, who knew the factory's defense shutdown codes, chose to accompany the Jedi on the task, hoping to kill Lachris. Meanwhile, Cordan began searching for a refuge for the rescued civilians. Using Zenith's knowledge of the factory's codes, the Jedi and the revolutionary hurried through the facility, as they realized that the Imperials were already preparing to smuggle the president out. The two soon found Galthe, frozen in a slab of carbonite, and were confronted by Darth Lachris, who stated that even when thawed, Galthe would be unable to help them. Lachris was killed by the Jedi, and Zenith moved the President to the safe house to begin the thawing process.

It turned out that Lachris had been right, however, as Imperial torture had shattered Galthe's mind. Upon being freed from the carbonite, Galthe turned out to be just a shell of a man, unable to think or act clearly and speaking gibberish. The Barsen'thor tried the shielding technique in an attempt to restore Galthe's sanity. However, the technique did not work, as the President's state had been caused not by Sith influence but by physical trauma. Since Galthe was in no condition to hand over the power to Cordan, Zenith suggested using medical technology donated by the corporations. A spinal implant could hack into the man's brain and muscle functions, allowing him to speak and sign his name at the formal ceremony. However, such technology would not last long and might even kill him afterward. Still, Zenith believed that option to be acceptable, not wanting the people to witness Galthe's state of mind and lose their hope. The Jedi refused the offer, believing that the people of Balmorra deserved to know the truth. Amidst a wave of revolts by the Balmorrans, spurred by the news of Lachris' death, Cordan and a citizens' committee organized by Hesh met inside the bunker. Although they witnessed Galthe's broken state, the citizens of Balmorra recognized Cordan's ascendancy to the Presidency. The latter, as his first official order, sent a formal request to the Republic to accept Balmorra as its member world and issued another order to start production of thousands of Balmorran droids to aid the Republic.

Revelation on Quesh
"Thank you, for protecting my Nadia. She told me you saw her&hellip;outburst. I imagine you want an explanation.''" "She uses her powers instinctively, when she becomes emotional." "''Yes, yes. But Nadia's gotten better at controlling herself. The Republic calls them "Force abilities," but to me they're "Nadia's gifts." Her powers are stronger than many Jedi, but unpredictable. I hope she would learn from you, from your experience."

- Tobas Grell discusses his daughter's powers with the Barsen'thor

Later, during a Rift Alliance meeting aboard the Jedi's ship, Zenith asked for a seat in the new government so he could express his own ideas on the future of the planet. However, Cordan refused the Twi'lek's request, believing that he had learned too much violence from the Empire during his fight to liberate the world and that Balmorra needed a fresh start. The newly appointed President offered an alternative instead. Since his duties now demanded him to stay on Balmorra, Cordan's place aboard the Barsen'thor's ship was now left vacant. He offered Zenith to take that place and to become a liaison between Balmorra and the Rift Alliance, a position which the revolutionary accepted. As Cordan left the ship, Tobas and Nadia Grell asked to speak with the Barsen'thor in private. The Jedi was informed of two pressing issues&mdash;first, Nadia had found an Imperial tracking device aboard the ship, indicating the presence of a potential spy aboard. Secondly, Tobas told the Jedi about Attis Station, a Rift Alliance research facility established on the contested planet Quesh. Using Quesh's vast resources of natural chemicals, the researchers at Attis Station had developed two technological breakthroughs&mdash;new powerful weapons and new healing technology. However, the station had recently dropped out of contact, and Imperial troops had been sighted nearby. The other members of the Rift Alliance were still thinking on their course of action and did not want to inform the Jedi about the station, but the Grells disagreed with their decision. Also, since Attis Station had been built using the resources of Sarkhai, the Grells' home planet, making the matter personal for them, Nadia requested to accompany the Barsen'thor during the mission to Attis Station.

Arriving on Quesh and traveling to Attis Station, the Jedi and a companion found the station's doors jammed. Nadia, arriving soon thereafter, was able to use a manual override code to open them, and she went inside ahead, since she had to find the door controls inside to close the doors before Quesh's toxic atmosphere could contaminate the station. Once inside, the Barsen'thor and the Jedi Master's ally found the station overrun with Sith troops. After defeating a number of them, led by a Sith named Kadon Vul, and rescuing several scientists, the two met up with Nadia, who used the station's camera systems to locate a group of surviving researchers trapped behind a security door in another wing of the facility, with a number of Sith already heading their way. As the three set off to rescue them, however, they were confronted by a squad of Imperial soldiers sent to kill them. Determined to rescue the scientists, Nadia unexpectedly for the Consular demonstrated that she was in fact Force-sensitive, knocking the Imperials back in an eruption of wild Force energy. Instructing the Barsen'thor and the companion to get to the scientists using her override command, she went deeper into the facility, drawing the Imperial troops away.

While traversing the facility, the Jedi and the Jedi Master's ally came upon a holographic transmission from Lord Kyrus, the Sith who was determined to undermine the Barsent'thor's efforts and who had somehow been monitoring the Rift Alliance ever since the attack on the Fortitude. Kyrus goaded the Jedi, mocking the fact the Barsen'thor was serving the bureaucrats of the Rift Alliance, and he promised to keep an eye on the Jedi. Soon, the Barsen'thor and the companion were able to rescue the scientists, who asked the Jedi's advice. After the Sith attack, Attis Station's remaining equipment could support only one research project&mdash;either the weapons, or the medicine. After helping the scientists choose the project to preserve, the Jedi Master was contacted by Nadia, who had evaded Imperial pursuit and was on her way back to the ship. Once the Jedi returned to the ship as well, the Barsen'thor was greeted by the members of the Rift Alliance, who apologized for keeping Attis Station classified. In a private conversation, Tobas Grell explained more about Nadia's powers. She was indeed Force-sensitive, and a very powerful at that, but she was untrained and was often unable to control her powers when becoming emotional. Tobas asked the Jedi to provide Nadia with some basic Jedi teachings to help her better understand and control her powers. Speaking about Lord Kyrus and how he was able to spy on them, Grell realized that the Imperial tracking device they had found earlier was the reason for that, and there was indeed a traitor aboard the ship. The Barsen'thor and the Senator decided to act normally in the meantime, hoping that the traitor would soon reveal oneself.

Defeating the undefeatable
"When Valon and his followers started harassing the Outer Rim, they sent us in.''" "''The LT forgot the best part, Jedi. Valon can't die!"

- Lieutenant Iresso and Private Kree informing the Consular of the "immortal" Valon

The Senator then informed the Jedi Master of another urgent matter. A group of Rift Alliance soldiers on the ice planet of Hoth required assistance. Hoth was overrun with pirates, who harassed the Alliance's shipping lanes, so a detachment of Republic troops had been provided to the Rift Alliance. Christened the Rift Alliance Coalition Forces, the detachment was tasked with battling the pirate threat. On Hoth, the Coalition Forces tried to repel the attacks of the pirate group, the White Maw, but they suffered one defeat after another, and the Republic had no forces to spare to assist the Rift Alliance. The soldiers were on the brink of mutiny, with only the man in charge of the troops on Hoth, Lieutenant Felix Iresso, still bothering to send daily reports. The Barsen'thor was officially granted command of the Coalition Forces by the Rift Alliance and was asked to meet with Lieutenant Iresso inside the Republic Aurek Base on Hoth in order to discover how the White Maw was able to continuously defeat his troops. Arriving at the meeting place, the Barsen'thor and a companion found Iresso and his troops in a dispute. The Lieutenant's men's morale was broken after their repeated attempts to kill the leader of one of the White Maw factions, Captain Valon, had failed. The Captain seemed to survive anything the Coalition Forces could throw at him, even a collapsed ice cavern, and he seemed invincible. In addition to that, Valon had recently stolen a thermal bore device that could crack Hoth's ice shelf and potentially destroy the Republic base. Since Iresso's men refused to fight Valon, the Lieutenant asked the Jedi to retrieve the thermal bore device, hoping that a victory like that would boost his men's confidence. Following the thermal bore's transponder signature to an old Imperial laboratory, the Jedi Master and the Jedi's companion broke inside and confronted Valon himself there. Although the pirate leader put up a fierce fight, the Consular was able to seemingly kill him and retrieve the thermal bore device.

However, when the two returned to Iresso with the device, they received a holographic message from Valon, who was somehow alive. The pirate revealed that the White Maw had taken control of the heat exchanger powering all the Republic bases on Hoth and that he intended to destroy it and let the Republic forces freeze to death. Iresso could not allow his men to learn that Valon had survived the encounter with the Jedi, else they would defect for certain. Therefore, he decided to distract them by taking them to fight Valon's scouting parties. Meanwhile, the Barsen'thor and the companion were asked to secure the heat exchanger, located at the Tromper Crags Geothermal Plant in the Highmount Ridge region. The pair went to the geothermal plant and disarmed the explosives placed there by the White Maw. However, the two were then ambushed by a squad of Imperial commandos, who intended to capture the Jedi alive and freeze the latter in carbonite. After all but one of the commandos were defeated by the Jedi, the surviving engineer informed the Barsen'thor that Valon was not invulnerable at all. Him surviving certain death was due to a set of special regenerative armor that could bring back its wearer to life from a near-death condition. According to the engineer, the Empire had found that armor inside the wreckage of one of the numerous starships that had crashed on Hoth, but Valon had stolen it from them. The Empire was trying to capture Valon and reclaim the armor. After learning of the Barsen'thor's mission on Hoth from the traitor aboard the Barsen'thor's ship and discovering the fact that the Jedi had angered Valon by tempering with his plans, the Empire had sent the commando squad to capture the Jedi and lure out the pirate. The Jedi Master healed the wounded engineer and let him go. The Jedi and the Master's companion then proceeded to go to Outpost Onith to meet up with Iresso.

It turned out that the White Maw's scouts had followed Iresso's men to the outpost, forcing the duo to assist Iresso's forces in repelling them. Seeing the pirates so well coordinated, the Coalition Forces realized that Valon was still alive and confronted the Lieutenant for lying to them. Iresso managed to quell the mutiny, subduing Private Kree, who dared pointing a blaster at him. Iresso wanted to punish the man and asked the Jedi for advice. After resolving the situation, the Barsen'thor informed the soldiers about Valon's secret armor. In order to learn a way to counter the armor, Iresso suggested infiltrating the facility where the Imperials had studied the suit before Valon stole it from them. While Iresso's troops distracted the facility's guards, driving them out into the snowy wilderness, the Jedi Master and a companion broke into the facility and found the lead scientist, Doctor Jurnak. Although the doctor refused to cooperate at first, claiming that he had received information about the Jedi coming for him and had destroyed his notes on the armor, the Barsen'thor managed to convince the Doctor to talk. The latter revealed that the healing properties of Valon's armor could be overstressed by repeatedly inflicting mortal injuries to him. At that moment, one of Iresso's men, Private Lavik, delivered news that Valon's men were attacking a scavenger camp in the region called the Glacial Fissure. Jurnak then demanded to be escorted to safety in accordance with Section 1138 of the Galactic Republic Charter, which dictated that the prisoners' safety had to be provided by the captors. Although Iresso was reluctant to spare any of his men to escort the Doctor, the Barsen'thor convinced him to do so. The Jedi Master and the companion then departed for the scavenger camp to investigate pirate activity.

After defeating the pirates inside the scavenger camp and killing their leader. Iresso soon arrived at the scavenger camp, informing the Jedi Master that the Coalition Forces had tracked Valon to the Star of Coruscant, a Republic dreadnaught buried in ice at the Starship Graveyard nearby. Iresso told the Barsen'thor that the scavengers that had been attacked by the pirates had used special equipment to salvage equipment out of the ice, and some of the pirates had managed to slip away with the equipment. The Lieutenant deduced that Valon was planning to use the equipment to dig out the dreadnaught and unite all the White Maw factions aboard that flagship. The dreadnaught was of an old design, with numerous security doors installed throughout its structure. In addition, Iresso's scouts had spotted a large number of pirates guarding it. The Coalition Forces' soldiers then developed a plan to attack the ship's engines, driving out Valon's men and buying the Jedi Master and the Jedi's companion time to get through the security doors. Infiltrating the ship, the pair had to fight an Imperial boarding party, the leader of which revealed that Valon had not stolen the armor but had been purposefully given it so he could carry out strikes against the Republic. Valon had gotten out of control, however, and the Imperials wanted to reclaim the armor. After defeating the Imperials and passing through the security doors, the Jedi confronted Valon and a captain of another White Maw group, who was planning to join Valon. The Barsen'thor killed the second captain and repeatedly defeated Valon several times, causing the armor to overload and cause a lot of pain for Valon. Meanwhile, Iresso and his men sabotaged the dreadnaught's engines, preventing it from ever taking off. Defeated, Valon tried to negotiate the Barsen'thor to let him go, promising to use his resources to attack the Empire's trade routes on behalf of the Rift Alliance. Not trusting the pirate captain, and believing that the Rift Alliance troops deserved to see the man brought to justice, the Jedi instead had him taken into custody. With the work on Hoth done, the Consular and the Jedi's companion were prepared to leave. They were thanked by the Coalition soldiers, while Lieutenant Iresso asked the Rift Alliance to put a word with his Republic superiors to have him reassigned aboard the Barsen'thor's starship, a request that was granted to the Lieutenant.

Hunting the Children
As Iresso was settling on the ship, the Barsen'thor was approached by the Grells. Nadia, worried to discover that the Empire had been alerted to the Jedi Master's mission on Hoth, had traced a communication to the Imperials coming from the Jedi's ship, further confirming the presence of a traitor aboard. Trying to figure out who the traitor might be, Nadia remembered that representative Blaesus had been spending a suspiciously long amount of time making holocalls, especially during the Jedi Master's tenure on Hoth. Blaesus, however, had already been dispatched by Tobas on a special mission to assist King Sethun and Queen Nyscha of Sarkhai. The royal family was planning to organize an official ceremony aboard the Republic Waypoint Station Three in order to grant the Republic a regiment of elite Sarkhai troops in gratitude for all of the Barsen'thor's efforts. Worried that the King and the Queen were left alone with the traitor, Tobas tried to contact them, but to no avail. Nadia then contacted Cordan instead, requesting him to send droids to guard the royal couple, while the Barsen'thor set course for Waypoint Station Three.

The Jedi Master and a companion found the station in ruin, with numerous civilians and the Sarkhai troops slaughtered, and the pair even had to destroy the station's damaged security droid, whose friend-or-foe recognition systems had been scrambled in the attack. The pair soon located the royal family, alongside two royal guards, being kept by Blaesus and Lord Kyrus&mdash;who turned out to be a subordinate of Blaesus&mdash;as hostages. Threatening to kill the King and the Queen, the traitor revealed that he was a "Child of the Emperor," implanted in infancy with the consciousness of the allegedly immortal leader of the Sith Empire, the Sith Emperor. According to Blaesus, there were hundreds of other Children among the Republic ranks, waiting to strike, their presence concealed by an enigmatic "First Son." Claiming that an Imperial fleet would be arriving soon to destroy those aboard the station, before moving on to Sarkhai itself, Blaesus offered the Sarkhai King and Queen a chance to save themselves and save their planet from destruction if they ordered their guards to kill the Barsen'thor. Informed of the Consular's efforts on behalf of the Rift Alliance, the Sarkhai did not yield to Blaesus's threats, prompting the latter to order Kyrus to kill the Jedi and the Consular's companion. The pair killed the Sith Lord, causing Blaesus to attack them personally. The duo killed the Child of the Emperor as well, and the thankful Sarkhai rulers pledged their planet's treasury to the Republic.

Returning to their ship, the Jedi Master was contacted by Cordan, who informed them that his forces had routed the Imperial fleet Blaesus had spoken about, but there were signs of sabotage among Cordan's forces, indicating the presence of more Children of the Emperor. At that point, Bakarn contacted the Consular and the Jedi's crew, informing them that the Sith Empire had launched a new offensive, plunging the galaxy into another open war. The Barsen'thor, in turn, told Bakarn about Blaesus's treachery and the existence of the Children. Bakarn had already known about the existence of the Children of the Emperor years ago from a defected member of the Dark Council, named Sajar, although even the defector had only heard vague rumors during his tenure as a Councilor. Advising the Barsen'thor to stay alert, Bakarn told the Jedi that the Chancellor had invoked an ancient law granting Jedi command over Republic military forces. The Barsen'thor and the Rift Alliance were tasked with finding allies who could help the Republic win the new war with the Empire. Bakarn revealed that the Jedi Order's researchers had managed to retrieve the remains of the Noetikons on Coruscant and had reconstructed them and the operating terminal on Tython. Even though the Noetikons had so far not responded to anyone, even the members of the Jedi Council, Master Bakarn believed that they might respond to the Consular, so he advised the Barsen'thor to start the search for allies by consulting with the ancient devices.

An ancient army
"Your Republic is a great chorus. Centuries ago, I wished to begin such a song. I would silence this Empire's disharmony. But we are a scream, not a whisper. Your Republic may be drowned by us.''" "''Someone who fears his own strength can be trusted to use it wisely."

- Hallow Voice and the Barsen'thor discuss the released Esh-kha

After taking a short rest, the Barsen'thor went to Tython to consult the Noetikons. The Masters of the Noetikons indeed spoke to the Jedi, informing the Barsen'thor that among their storage of information were recordings made by the Rakata, an ancient species whose Infinite Empire had once dominated the galaxy. The Rakata had claimed to have once imprisoned an entire army beneath the surface of a planet, but the information in the Noetikons was incomplete and the exact name of the planet was unknown, only two coordinates that pointed at its location somewhere in the Mid Rim. However, the Masters also found mentions of a monument erected by the Rakata on Hoth in honor of their victory over the rumored army. Thanking the Masters for their help, the Barsent'hor departed Tython and set course back for Hoth. Once at the coordinates provided by the Noetikons, the Jedi and a companion found a Rakata monument frozen in ice, and they were then attacked by ancient Rakata guardian droids of similar model to Tythonian War Droids. After defeating the droids, the Jedi thawed the monument using the lightsaber. The monument then activated itself, projecting a hologram of a Rakata, whose purpose was to keep the story of the Infinite Empire's victory over the Esh-kha, an ancient species that had once attempted to purge the galaxy of all other species. Even though some Esh-kha had claimed to be peaceful, the Rakata had imprisoned the entire species alive, putting them in a state of stasis beneath the surface of a planet. The Rakata hologram provided the Consular with the third and final coordinate leading to the planet the Jedi sought. The monument's programming preventing it to believe that the Rakata were extinct, the hologram then stated that it was planning to glorify its "Builders" by brainwashing innocent people who would try to activate the monument again. Not willing to let that happen, the Jedi destroyed the monument. Analyzing all three coordinates, the Jedi Master's crew found out that the world they were seeking was called Belsavis, a classified Republic high security planet-prison.

Even though some members of the crew were cautious about releasing the Esh-kha, the Barsen'thor hoped to locate the faction that had opposed their species' galactic conquest and have them convince the others to assist the Republic. Once the Consular arrived at Belsavis, the Jedi's ship was detained in orbit while the Republic forces on the planet's surface verified Tobas Grell's Galactic Senate clearance to visit the top secret planet. Eventually, they were contacted by Assistant Komi, who stated that the Republic was too busy dealing with a major breakout instigated by the Empire, whose forces had cracked open the ancient Belsavis vaults. Komi suggested the Jedi to speak with her commanding officer, S. Geland, hoping that he would be able to assist, since his hobby was studying the vaults. However, a recent power outage caused by the breakout had left the Republic locator towers disabled. The locator towers were used by the Republic forces to track the signals of its personnel ID cards. Without the towers, Komi could not find Geland, and the Republic forces were too preoccupied with the outbreak to do the repairs. The Consular promised to help Komi to fix the towers. Landing at the Minimum Security Section, the Barsen'thor and a companion activated the locator towers, allowing Komi to track Geland and his squad's signal to Cell block 923-A, where Geland had gone to investigate how the Empire had started the breakout. However, once there, the two found the cell block overrun by reprogrammed security droids, including a TZ-27 Annihilator Droid. After defeating the droids, the pair searched the cell block, discovering bodies of Geland's men laying everywhere. The Commander himself was nowhere to be found, and only his ID card was found inside the block. Komi soon arrived at the scene, destroying a computer that the Jedi was attempting to access. She claimed to have done so to prevent Geland from spying on them. She explained to the Barsen'thor that when she had contacted Geland about the Jedi's visit, she had seen him kill his own men with a blast of Force lightning, indicating that Geland was a traitor and one of the Children of the Emperor. Komi also spoke of an ancient computer that Geland had found inside one of the tombs, which he intended to study. Since Geland had left his ID card and there was no other way to track him down, the computer was the Barsen'thor's best bet to locating the Commander.

Proceeding to Vault S-31 in the High Security Section, the Jedi and a companion accessed the computer and were contacted by Geland, who informed the two that he had already dismantled the terminal. Furthermore, Geland, using his authority, put the Jedi as a Category Ten escapee, which would cause all of the Republic's defense systems around the planet-prison to fire at the Barsen'thor on sight. However, the Jedi was then contacted by a mysterious voice who offered assistance. The voice told the Jedi Master to obtain spare parts to repair the broken computer terminal and remove the death warrant on the Jedi's head. The Consular did as asked, retrieving an auto-repair module from a similar computer in another vault, Vault S-54. The Jedi then scavenged spare parts in the area surrounding the vaults and used those parts and the module to repair the broken computer. The mysterious benefactor informed the Jedi that the Category Ten status had been lifted and Geland had been temporarily locked out of the prison computer system. He proceeded to tell the Barsen'thor about the Esh-kha, claiming that the leaders of the species had been imprisoned in the deepest vaults. One of them, Hallow Voice, had been the leader of the group of peaceful Esh-kha. However, the Empire had released a number of hostile Esh-kha to instigate riots across the planet. That had caused all the yet unopened vaults, including the one that held Hallow Voice, to go into a state of lockdown. The only way to release him was to issue an all-clear signal from two security terminals at the Maximum Security Section. Inside Maximum Security Pod J-P4, a quarantine cell, the Jedi and the Barsen'thor's companion successfully transmitted the all-clear signal from one of the consoles. Before the duo could reach the second one, however, Geland contacted the Barsen'thor, having been able to get back control of Belsavis's computer system. Geland threatened to release the deadly toxins kept in the quarantine block. Even though the Barsen'thor would be able to survive the exposure due to special Jedi training, all the other prisoners in the block would get affected as well. The Jedi Master was not willing to cause harm to other people, even if they were psychotic criminals and demanded Geland to release them. Fighting through many of the released prisoners, the Jedi Master and the companion went deeper into the area, reaching a psychiatric unit called Maximum Security Pod J-P8, where the pair were trapped between two force fields. A custodian droid informed the captives that he had orders coming from Geland to detain the Barsen'thor, with the Commander claiming that the individual was suffering from delusions of being a Jedi. The Barsen'thor managed to convince the droid otherwise and told him about Geland's treachery. The droid released the captives and activated the second console, sending the all-clear signal to the Esh-kha vaults.

The two were then contacted by their mysterious ally, who asked the Barsen'thor for a meeting in person. Arriving at the meeting place in the Ancient Prison Caverns, the pair found out that their contact was a living Rakata, who was hiding behind a protective force field from an attack by hostile Esh-kha,. After the Consular defeated the Esh-kha, the Rakata deactivated the force field and introduced himself as Lhunu, explaining that he was one of the few original Rakata who had disagreed with the decision to imprison all of the Esh-kha. Lhunu had stayed behind in stasis to undo the evils of his species and to release Hallow Voice and his people. The Rakata also explained that the hostile Esh-kha who had attacked him had been sent by Geland. Lhunu was close to locating Hallow Voice's stasis chamber, but first he directed the Jedi Master to the tombs of Hallow Voice's followers, hoping to free them before Geland could kill them. Journeying into an ancient section of the prison called the Tomb while fighting hostile Esh-kha loyal to Geland, the Barsen'thor and a member of the Jedi's crew reached the Esh-kha stasis vault, first releasing a group of Force-sensitive Esh-kha savants, led by Sharpest Eye. Although the Esh-kha initially did not trust the Jedi, the Consular convinced the savants to follow, escaping from the stasis vault before Geland's security protocols purged it from all living organisms. Thankful, Sharpest Eye directed the Barsen'thor to another group of imprisoned Esh-kha, the warriors, and told the Jedi how to speak to the group to gain their trust. Releasing the warriors by destroying the ancient droids that guarded them, the Jedi spoke to their leader, Hidden Blade, directing him to set free as many of Hallow Voice's followers as possible. Hidden Blade then pointed the Jedi at the location of the chambers where the Rakata had imprisoned the leaders of Hallow Voice's army. The Jedi liberated the Esh-kha officers, and one of them, Red Walker, pleaded the Barsen'thor to rescue Hallow Voice as fast as possible. Lhunu then contacted the Jedi, informing the Barsen'thor that Geland was already near the Tomb of Hallow Voice. As the Jedi and the companion approached the tomb, they found Geland guarded by several followers of Hallow Voice. The Commander, tricking them to believe that the Consular was there to kill their leader, ordered the Esh-kha to stop the Jedi. He then ran into the room containing Hallow Voice's stasis cell and sealed himself in behind a massive blast door.

After being forced to kill the Esh-kha, the Jedi used the Force to blast the door open. However, Geland had already destroyed Hallow Voice's stasis controls, and the Esh-kha leader was dying with every moment. Issuing emergency condition 292 and calling two battle droids to assist him, Geland attacked the Jedi, hoping to delay the Consular long enough until Hallow Voice could no longer be saved. The Barsen'thor killed the Child of the Emperor and freed Hallow Voice, who was on the brink of death. Using Force healing abilities, the Jedi revived the Esh-kha. At that point Lhunu arrived with Hallow Voice's lieutenants. The Rakata told the Jedi that the other Esh-kha were too dangerous to be freed and suggested terminating their chambers' life support and killing them. The Barsen'thor disagreed and let the violent Esh-kha be continued being kept in stasis. Having reconciled with Hallow Voice, Lhunu left the scene. After letting the Consular choose an Esh-kha name to signify the individual's deeds, Hallow Voice joined the Jedi's crew aboard the Defender, while his followers remained on Belsavis, ready to be picked up by the Republic forces. As the Jedi Master was introducing Hallow Voice to the crew, however, a message came in from Captain Sulle of Belsavis orbital security. The Captain informed the Jedi that Tobas Grell had been kidnapped by an armed man aboard the Belsavis orbital station while returning to the Jedi's ship from a meeting. The orbital security's tracking equipment had been sabotaged, and they could not trace the kidnapper's starship. However, using the scientific knowledge of Cedrax and Holiday and the data they had received from Sulle regarding the kidnapper's engine signature, the Consular's crew was able to track down the kidnapper. Worried about her father, Nadia insisted on accompanying the Barsen'thor on the rescue mission.

The Barsen'thor and Nadia boarded the kidnapper's ship, the Ajuur-class heavy cruiser Euphony, finding Tobas tortured to the brink of death by a man called Stark. Once a powerful Sith, Stark had learned about the existence of the Children of the Emperor. He had followed their trail, only to be found by the First Son instead. The First Son had twisted the Sith's personality through painful rituals, making him forget his real name and become his servant, only known as "Stark." Through torture of Tobas, Stark had also learned about the released Esh-kha. Hoping that he might earn his personality back by defeating the Jedi and bringing the information back to the First Son, Stark attacked the Barsen'thor. The Jedi Master and Nadia defeated the Sith, but it was too late for Tobas, who died despite Nadia's efforts to heal him with the Force. Enraged by her father's death and believing that her family would be disgraced if she did not avenge Tobas, Nadia wanted to finish off Stark, who was still alive. The Barsen'thor stopped her from killing the man and slipping to the dark side of the Force. Stark, however, still died, his life cut short by the power of the First Son. Later, the Jedi Council contacted the Barsen'thor's ship, offering condolences on Senator Grell's death. Master Bakarn also played Grell's pre-recorded will, in which the Senator requested Nadia to be trained as a Padawan by the Barsen'thor. The Council granted the Senator's last wish, and the Barsen'thor accepted Tobas's daughter as a Padawan. With Tobas's death also came the realization that the Esh-kha were not enough to defeat the Children of the Emperor. One of the Rift Alliance members, Diab Duin, suggested the Consular to head to the planet Voss, home of the fabled Voss Mystics, a sect of Force-sensitive native Voss who were rumored to have the powers to predict future events with unprecedented accuracy and were considered gray Force-users by the Jedi Order. The Voss had so far remained neutral in the war, but both the Republic and the Empire wanted the Mystics on their side and had sent dignitaries to the Voss to sway them to their respective faction.

Meanwhile, with help from Mako, an information broker who owed him a favor, Fess had tracked down Veneb Drassk, the Trandoshan who had been selling his own kind to Gwarror. Drassk used to be a bounty hunter, but he had used Gwarror to kill his rivals, which had resulted in him shooting up the ranks and becoming the leader of his clan. He had become respected among his peers and was going to become the Clan Speaker, a representative of all Trandoshan clans to the Trandoshan Elders. Although he was willing to avenge those killed with Drassk's help, Fess was reluctant to go against him, as he thought that the Scorekeeper favored Drassk, despite his scheming. After a lot of thinking, Fess decided to issue Drassk a ghrajath, a claim of dispute. In accordance with Trandoshan laws, one could not become a Clan Speaker with an unresolved ghrajath. Through the Elders, Fess set up a meeting with Drassk on Taris. The Barsen'thor accompanied Fess to the meeting place, first encountering one of the members of Drassk's clan, Brek. Brek went to call Drassk and arrived with him and two more Trandoshans, Narrik and Ssalash. When confronted with his machinations, Drassk and his companions attacked the Jedi and Fess. Ultimately, Drassk was killed, while the three young Trandoshans survived the fight and were left without a leader. After dealing with the situation, the Barsen'thor returned to the main mission.

Assisting a rite of passage
"You don't know who the First Son is. I'll share a little secret. Neither does he. You see, Jedi, some Children never know their true nature. They sleepwalk through life, until the Emperor wakes them."

- Sophia Farash tells the Barsen'thor about the First Son

The Barsen'thor soon arrived on Voss and landed with a companion at the planet's capital city of Voss-Ka. There, the two met with the Republic Ambassador Sophia Farash, who informed the duo that the Mystics were incredibly powerful, but they were also very rare, and convincing even a single Mystic to join the Jedi's army would be considered extremely lucky. However, with the recent expansion of the local hostile Gormak species, the Mystics had become even rarer, as the Gormak prevented young Mystics from completing their ceremonial rite of passage. Farash therefore assumed that the best way to gain the assistance of a Mystic would be to have the Barsen'thor help one of the potentials finish the necessary pilgrimage. The Ambassador suggested the pair to try their luck with Gaden-Ko, a young potential Mystic who would be entitled to a large entourage of healers and Voss commandos if he passed the rites. According to Farash's aide, Havren, Gaden-Ko had already embarked on his pilgrimage and had recently left Voss-Ka with his family to a nearby holy ground in the Old Paths region, the Holy Path of Mir. Fearing for Gaden-Ko's safety since he had not taken any escort, Farash asked the Jedi to follow him. However, in accordance with Voss customs, the Jedi needed to perform a certain ritual on the way there in order to be considered pure enough to enter the sacred place. Honoring the ritual, the Jedi and a companion took branches from three trees sacred to the Voss&mdash;the Tree of Life, the Tree of Death and the Tree of Duty&mdash;and then entered the holy grounds, which had been overrun by wild animals. The Barsen'thor was able to rescue and heal Gaden-Ko, but the latter's family had been killed. Gaden-Ko agreed to let the Jedi become his guide during the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Healing. As the next step on Gaden-Ko's journey, the boy needed to go to a marker called the Ruins of Wisdom to pay respects to a holy figure called Lishi-Na.

Once there, Gaden-Ko explained to the Jedi that the entire building was a marker that signified the support of the Mystics by the entire Voss society. At that point, however, Gaden-Ko was attacked from behind by a Sith Lord named Shendan, who stabbed him in the back with a poisoned knife. The blade was centimeters away from inflicting a mortal wound, but Shendan was certain that the poison would finish his victim. The Sith told the Jedi that with the attack he intended to frame the Republic for the murder of Gaden-Ko, as the blade was soaked with a Republic toxin. The Barsen'thor fought Shendan and defeated him, trying to convince him to let go of his hatred. In his final moments, the Sith indeed felt the serenity of the sacred place as he died. The Barsen'thor and the Jedi's companion escorted the wounded Gaden-Ko to the Shrine of Healing and handed the young man to the care of its healers. However, the Jedi was then confronted by the Shrine attendant, who said that only those who honored Voss traditions were allowed to enter the Shrine, and she directed the Barsen'thor to a Voss named Suva-Rak at the nearby outpost called the Pilgrim Retreat to seek guidance. Once the Consular and a companion finally entered the Shrine, they went straight to Orin-Va and Asha-Mu, the healers who tended to Gaden-Ko. They informed the Jedi that the poison was continuing to eat at the young Voss. In order to help him, the healers needed the Barsen'thor's to join their ritual, sacrificing some of the individual's own strength to save Gaden-Ko. The Jedi Master did what was needed, causing a spiritual entity that represented Gaden-Ko's pain to materialize. The entity entered the Jedi's body, causing the Barsen'thor to share Gaden-Ko's suffering but healing the young man in the process. Awake, Gaden-Ko shared with his guide that he was worried that he had not received any visions yet. He believed that he needed to complete the next step of his pilgrimage, to contemplate beside an ancient carving at a holy place in order to receive a sign that would guide him. However, the carving had been shattered long ago and was scattered throughout the nearby city of Gorma-Koss, an area ruled by the Gormak.

The Barsen'thor found the scattered pieces of the carving and assembled them at the Halls of the Righteous, a holy place in the heart of Gorma-Koss. The Jedi and a companion escorted Gaden-Ko there, and the latter meditated at the carving, but no sign came. Then, a squad of Voss commandos appeared, led by a Voss named Jenar-Sei, just in time to save Gaden-Ko from a Gormak assassin who had infiltrated the sacred halls and attempted to kill him. The commando leader explained that the Gormak operated a mining camp nearby where they mined valuable crystals, using them to augment their Vorantiki and Mawvorr beasts. Believing that the appearance of the commandos was the sign Gaden-Ko had been looking for, the Jedi agreed to go to the Gormak camp and dismantle their mining operation, while Gaden-Ko and the commandos engaged some of the Gormak, drawing them away from the mining camp. The Barsen'thor and a companion did so, retrieving a valuable large crystal from the camp, and then returned to Gaden-Ko and Jenar-Sei, who were waiting back beside the carving, handing the crystal back to them. The Voss told the Jedi that during their mission to distract the Gormak, two commandos had mysteriously disappeared, and another one was barely saved by Gaden-Ko, and it seemed that something mysterious had been hunting them. Gaden-Ko also said that he agreed that his sign had come in the form of the commandos and stated that the next stop of their journey was the Deep Cradle, a part of an ancient ruin called the Dark Heart, located in the Nightmare Lands, an area of the planet that was infamous for driving its inhabitants insane. Once the Jedi and a companion arrived at the Char-An Outpost in the Nightmare Lands, they were contacted by Ambassador Farash, who requested their assistance. A Republic archaeological team led by Doctor Kerrian had gone missing in the region. Farash asked the Jedi to try to find the team, and Gaden-Ko concurred, hoping to use Kerrian as a guide who would show them the way to the Deep Cradle.

However, upon reaching the expedition's location, the Jedi, the Barsen'thor's companion and Gaden-Ko found only one Nautolan excavator, Lefry Kaonai. The man informed them that the entire expedition had gone insane after visiting the Deep Cradle. The only reason that he had not shared their fate was because he had undertaken a Voss ritual that protected him from the influence of the Nightmare Lands. Kaonai explained that the crazed members of the expedition had left him alone, but only Kerrian knew the way to the Deep Cradle. While Gaden-Ko stayed with the Nautolan, the Barsen'thor and the Jedi's crewmate went to Kerrian's lair, which had been tracked by the excavator. The Jedi Master had to kill the insane scientist but was able to retrieve the Doctor's holojournal, returning it to Kaonai. The Nautolan was able to decipher the journal, learning about a secret switch beneath a rock that opened the way to the deep cradle, as well as the main secret of the Deep Cradle&mdash;it contained three altars that offered insight to the potential mystics. Kaonai then called a Republic team to extract him. However, the man was too scared to stay alone to wait for the team, so the Jedi Master stayed with the Nautolan until the Republic soldiers came. Grateful, Kaonai presented the Jedi with an artifact excavated from the Deep Cradle. The Barsen'thor, the Jedi's companion and Gaden-Ko, using the directions from Kerrian's journal, soon reached the Dark Heart and entered the Deep Cradle by activating the secret switch.

Within, the three found three altars signifying the three tenets of the Voss society&mdash;life, death, and duty. Gaden-Ko stopped to meditate at each of the altars, causing ancient beasts within the ruins to awake and attack him. The Jedi Master defended Gaden-Ko as he meditated, slaying the beasts, including the Dark Heart Abomination. Gaden-Ko's meditation at the final altar summoned an apparition of his dead grandfather, Dajan-Ko. The spirit tempted his grandson with promises to resurrect his family, but Gaden-Ko declined, learning to accept the passing of those he loved and ending his journey as a trainee by receiving a vision of twin suns orbiting a planet. With that, Gaden-Ko became a full-fledged Mystic. The spirit of Dajan-Ko also recognized the Barsen'thor's efforts by directing the Jedi to an ancient artifact located inside the Deep Cradle. Gaden-Ko and the Barsen'thor returned to Voss-Ka, where they spoke with the Three&mdash;Sonn-Vi, Gunta-Mer and Nen-Ji&mdash;the leaders of the Voss society, inside the Tower of Prophecy. The Three informed the Jedi that Gaden-Ko's vision had been interpreted to mean that he had to leave with the Barsen'thor to learn from the Jedi Master. Alongside Gaden-Ko, an entire entourage of three vision interpreters, seven healers, and sixty Voss commandos led by Jenar-Sei, joined the Jedi Master's crew, traveling aboard other ships belonging to the Rift Alliance. Gaden-Ko also vouched for the Republic before the Three, asking them to consider to have the Voss enter an alliance with the galactic government.

As the Barsen'thor, the Jedi's companion and Gaden-Ko were preparing to enter the Jedi's ship docked at the Voss Orbital Station, they were met in the airlock by Ambassador Farash. The Ambassador, however, was trying to stop Gaden-Ko from leaving with the Jedi. She summoned two Sith apprentices to her side and pulled out a lightsaber, revealing herself to be one of the Emperor's Children and trying to take Gaden-Ko away to serve the Emperor. Force-pushing Gaden-Ko out of harm's way, the Barsen'thor and the companion fought Faresh, killing her apprentices but keeping her alive. The traitor then revealed to the Jedi the truth about the First Son&mdash;he was an unwilling sleeper agent unaware of his implanted identity, like several of the other Children had been programmed to be. The First Son's personality acted independently from its host, who had no memories of what his other persona did. Attracted by the commotion, Jenar-Sei and the Voss commandos entered the airlock, taking Farash into custody. According to Jenar-Sei, she was going to be executed by taking the "Step of Harmony" from a mountain in Voss-Ka. Even though the Jedi Master protested against such methods of dealing with the prisoner, she was taken away nonetheless. Gaden-Ko was then welcomed aboard the Jedi's ship, as the Barsen'thor departed Voss.

On the frontlines
"We&hellip;just lost communication to the Guardian Holds. All our troops, their leaders&hellip;''" "''If he takes the Guardian Holds, he can take Coronet City; that's the entire purpose of the Holds. Corellia is lost!"

- Masters Shan and Kaedan inform the Barsen'thor of the urgency of stopping the First Son

The Barsen'thor was soon contacted by Bakarn, as well as the Supreme Chancellor, who relayed the news on the course of the ongoing war. The Empire had assaulted the Core Worlds, besieging the Republic world of Corellia. A large Imperial fleet of thirty troop transports guarded by the prototype Harrower-class dreadnought Javelin was on its way to reinforce the Imperial armada at Corellia. Bakarn informed the Consular that he was on his way to assist Corellia's defenses. Meanwhile, seeing an opportunity, Chancellor Janarus ordered the Barsen'thor and the Jedi's crew to board the Javelin and capture the capital ship intact. Boarding the warship en route to Corellia, the Barsen'thor took one companion and went to capture the bridge in order to force the Javelin's captain to surrender. Meanwhile, the rest of the Jedi's crew each took a number of Voss commandos and proceeded through different directions, securing other vital areas of the ship&mdash;the network room, the security, and the armory. At the same time, the Rift Alliance's fleet, reinforced by Hallow Voice's Esh-kha, engaged the troop transports. It soon became evident, however, that the dreadnaught was very lightly guarded. The truth was revealed when the Barsen'thor reached the ship's bridge and found it deserted, aside from a droid designated LI-45. The droid calmly stated that the Javelin was a trap rigged with enough detonite to destroy it and the Rift Alliance fleet. There was not enough time to disarm all the charges, but by disarming enough of them, the Barsen'thor hoped to lessen the power of the Javelin destruction so it would not harm the Rift Alliance fleet. Instructing the other crew members to disarm as many charges as possible before evacuating, the Barsen'thor and the crewmember accompanying the Jedi went for the closest explosives to their own position. As the ship started to break apart due to the explosions, the pair were contacted by one of the Barsen'thor's other crewmembers, who decided to stay aboard as long as possible in order to download what the companion thought was important Imperial data from the dreadnaught's computers. Although the Barsen'thor willed their comrade to leave immediately, the crewmember planned to reach an escape pod at the last moment, and the Jedi and the rest of the crew returned to the Defender. As the Javelin met its demise, the Consular's men did indeed spot a single escape pod launched toward Corellia, which was then guided by the planet's automated landing systems to crash-land somewhere at the Blastfield Shipyards area in the capital city of Coronet.

Cordan, who was on his way to Corellia with a detachment of battle droids, informed the Baren'thor that the situation on Corellia was grim for the Republic. However, the good news were that prior to the invasion, Master Bakarn had finished working on the Guardian Holds, specialized fortified buildings spread across Coronet City that had the facilities and the resources needed to help the Republic in the retaking of the planet. Realizing that they would need help in tracking down the escape pod with the missing companion, the Barsen'thor's crew responded to a request for help made by the Corellian Captain Drizan in the Zone Twelve of the shipyards. The Captain and his aide, the Selonian Quil, informed the Jedi that their forces could not risk sending rescue parties due to the threat of Imperial XR-32 hunter droids that patrolled the area. The Jedi and a companion dispatched enough droids to make breaches in the Imperial security perimeter, allowing Quil's scouts to track the pod to an area in Zone Twelve that was heavily infested with Imperials. The pair fought their way through to the escape pod, also assisting Drizan with the task of reclaiming two communication towers. Those towers had been converted into anti-aircraft guns by the resistance but had been subsequently captured by the Empire. The Consular reprogrammed the guns to target Imperial positions. Cracking open the jammed escaped pod's door with the Force, the Jedi released the trapped companion. The individual informed the Jedi of a successful retrieval of a lot of important Imperial data from the Javelin. However, one file, which supposedly contained information on the First Son, was corrupted. The Jedi hoped to have Holiday fix the file at Drizan's safehouse, but the released crewmember was too weak to walk. Calling on Quil's earlier promise to assist them in any way possible, the Jedi called several Selonian scouts to help, asking them to smuggle the injured companion to Drizan's base through secret Selonian Tunnels. Reuniting at the safehouse with the companion, the Jedi tried to restore the corrupted file, but Holiday was unable to do so by herself. In order to fix it, she required access to information from the Jedi Archives on Tython. The Barsen'thor sent a request to the Jedi Council, and Masters Shan and Kaedan granted Holiday full access to the files. She was able to repair the file, which contained a recording of a meeting between the First Son and Nadien, a Secretary of the Corellian Council. To the Barsen'thor's shock, the First Son turned out to be none other than Syo Bakarn.

Contacting Bakarn to let him explain himself, the Barsen'thor and the Jedi Council members were confronted by the personality of the First Son, who had taken full control over Bakarn's body and revealed that he had had his fellow Children placed inside the Guardian Holds. As such, the Barsen'thor and the Jedi Master's companion were tasked with retaking the Holds, starting from the closest to their location, Guardian Hold Six, a walker factory in Coronet's Labor Valley. However, the two were contacted by Cordan, whose forces had landed on the planet and tried to approach the facility, only to receive a distress call notifying them that all Guardian Holds had fallen to the enemy from within. Only a small force had managed to escape from Guardian Hold Six and had set a refuge camp near the facility. The leader of the survivors, the Mirialan Jedi Jari Orez, was reluctant to accept help from Cordan's forces, not trusting the new arrivals after experiencing betrayal from his own forces. Reaching Orez's camp, the Barsen'thor convinced the man that Cordan's forces were allies of the Republic. Orez accepted help and revealed to the Consular that Guardian Hold Six had been taken under control by the soldier Aelan Kalder, a Child of the Emperor. Orez said that he and his men had only been able to escape when a section of the factory's wall had been damaged during the fighting. Hoping to breach the Hold and stop the Empire from producing walkers for themselves, the Barsen'thor decided to have Cordan's droids try to breach the weakened wall&mdash;which by now would have been repaired&mdash;again. Orez also asked the Jedi to try to reason with Kalder, who was his close friend, if possible. The droids did their part, allowing the Jedi and a companion to slip inside the Hold and shut down the production of walkers, while Balmorra's droids made their way further into the facility. However, a number of already functional droids were activated by someone on the factory level, preventing Cordan's forces from making progress. The Jedi and the Barsen'thor's ally reached the factory floor, finding Kalder there, who wished to avenge the deaths of his fellow Children by the Barsen'thor's hand. The two defeated Kalder and the droids he tried to summon to his aid. The Barsen'thor retrieved the factory's activation codes from Kalder's body and reactivated the factory. The First Son then contacted the Barsen'thor, who tried to bring back Bakarn by reminding the man of his friends and his duties as a Jedi. A glimpse of Bakarn emerged for a brief moment, but the First Son took back control and cut the communication. With Kalder defeated, Orez took back control of Guardian Hold Six, directing the Jedi's forces to Axial Park, where another fortress, Guardian Hold Four, had fallen to the enemy. Guardian Hold Four used to be a manor belonging to the prestigious Bakvalen family, and it had three major layers of security. A grid of sensors was spread around Axial Park, warning the Hold's occupants of approaching hostiles. In addition to that, the Hold was protected by a force field and a security door. During a war council with Hallow Voice, Cordan, and Gaden-Ko in a Republic safe house in Axial Park, the Barsen'thor developed a plan of assault on the manor.

The Jedi first disabled the sensors, causing the Imperials occupying the Hold to lower the force field and send teams to investigate. The Imperial scouts were ambushed by the "Red Team," consisting of Gaden-Ko's Voss commandos. Meanwhile, Cordan's battle droids, the "Blue Team," moved inside the Hold's outer defensive perimeter and disabled the generators powering the main door. The Barsen'thor and a companion reached Guardian Hold Four, where they were confronted by members of the elite Imperial Guard. Defeating several members of the Guard along with their captain, the pair moved further into the Hold, discovering that Bakarn was actually a member of the Bakvalen family, who had once occupied the manor. The Consular soon found another Child of the Emperor, the Republic Corporal Daresha, accompanied by Imperial Generals Grann and Merion. The Barsen'thor offered her a chance at redemption, but she did not accept it and attacked the Consular. After killing Daresha, the Jedi Master took the Generals prisoner, while the Consular's forces secured the Hold. Although General Merion refused to speak, Grann proved to be more reasonable. He revealed that with the fall of two Guardian Holds, the Imperial command, and possibly the First Son himself, would have most likely retreated into Guardian Hold One, a secret bunker at the Government District's Capitol Square. As a Voss commando was sent by Gaden-Ko to investigate, the First Son established contact again, taunting the Barsen'thor for failing to redeem Daresha. The Consular tried to appeal once more to Bakarn's personality, reminding him of his lineage, but after a brief moment of clarity, the First Son reclaimed control. Soon, the Voss scout, Tasan-Ge, reported that he had been unable to locate Guardian Hold One, but he sent the location of Republic forces at the Drall Library in the Government District, who could assist the Jedi.

Once there, the Jedi met Tasan-Ge's contact, Republic Sergeant Rossiker, who developed a plan to locate Guardian Hold One by tracking Imperial communications coming from within it. In order to do so, the Barsent'hor and a member of the Jedi Master's crew, supported by their army, took control of and reprogrammed heavily guarded communications terminals around Capitol Square, with the Esh-kha securing the terminals located on the rooftops, which were the hardest to reach. Rossiker was able to triangulate the Hold's location, and the Jedi Master breached it, finding two Corellian Councillors&mdash;Saiak and Delquis&mdash;as well as Secretary Nadien, hiding there from their own people, who despised them for selling the planet to the Empire. The Barsen'thor demanded to know where the First Son was, but Saiak revealed himself to be a Child of the Emperor, killing Delquis. After killing Saiak, the Barsenthor spoke to the surviving Secretary Nadien, who feared that he might turn out to be a Child himself. Assured that the death of the First Son would expose the other Children and would prove him not to be a sleeper agent, Nadien revealed that the First Son had used a secret hatch leading below Guardian Hold One into the tunnels beneath Coronet City. Leaving Gaden-Ko and Cordan to command the Rift Alliance forces defending Guardian Hold One from Imperial reinforcements, the Barsen'thor took one companion and followed the First Son, intending to stop him once and for all.

The triumph of light
Inside the cave below Guardian Hold One, the pair were confronted by two more Children of the Emperor that were accompanying their leader. After defeating them, the two confronted the First Son himself, with the Barsen'thor pleading to Master Bakarn's personality. The First Son, however, claimed that Bakarn was not powerful enough and he had gone silent forever. The First Son believed that by killing the Barsen'thor, he would cripple the Rift Alliance and the Republic, and so he attacked the Jedi, blasting the Consular with Force lightning. Using the Force to heal the wound, the Barsen'thor engaged the First Son in battle. Midway through the fight, Bakarn attempted to reassert himself, using the Force to heal the First Son's opponents before the Sith personality regained control. As the First Son began to lose the fight, he tried to use the Force to collapse the cavern around them, intending to take the Jedi with him to the death. The Barsen'thor stopped him and finally defeated the adversary, weakening the First Son's grasp over Bakarn. The Barsen'thor once more willed the Jedi Master to break free, and Bakarn was finally able to do so, taking control of his body and containing the First Son within his mind. Thanking the Barsen'thor for not giving up on him and shocked at the atrocities he had committed as the First Son, Bakarn remained inside the cavern to recover, away from everyone.

With the First Son locked away, the shield he had been creating around the other Children was gone, revealing them to the galaxy. After the Jedi Council was informed of Bakarn's redemption, they promised to have him returned to Tython to help him recover. While the fighting on Corellia still continued, the reclaiming of the Guardian Holds swayed the battle in the Republic's favor. The new Galactic Republic Chancellor Leontyne Saresh, elected in an emergency session of the Senate after Janarus had been killed by a bounty hunter, invited the Barsen'thor to Coruscant for an award ceremony. With all of the Jedi's allies present, the Barsen'thor was recognized for the courageous efforts in stopping the Children of the Emperor. For their assistance, member worlds of the Rift Alliance were rewarded with several billion credits, privileged access to hyperspace routes and extra support for their armies, with even more concessions promised in the future. A representative of the Rift Alliance for the Senate was also chosen by the Barsen'thor between Alauni, Duin, and Shuuru. The Esh-kha were accepted into the Republic, while as far as his reward was concerned, Gaden-Ko asked only to have more Jedi sent to Voss to learn the so-called "gray" aspects of the Force from the Mystics. After his tenure as the First Son, Bakarn could no longer keep a seat on the Jedi Council, so Masters Shan and Kaedan offered the seat to the Barsen'thor. Humbly accepting the promotion, the Jedi Master gave a final speech to those present at the ceremony before returning to active duty. The Jedi Council helped Bakarn find a secret sanctuary where he continued to live in a self-imposed exile, carrying the burden of keeping the First Son within him for the rest of his days and spending all of his time to try to expose other Children of the Emperor. He sent the Barsen'thor one final message, once more thanking the Jedi for saving him and informing the latter that he had asked Grand Master Shan to keep him apprised of the Barsen'thor's career. The Barsen'thor and the Jedi Master's crew would continue to serve the Republic during the continuing war, joining the fight against the Empire on the ice world of Ilum. With the Emperor presumed by the galaxy to have been killed by a Jedi warrior, the breakaway Sith Lord Darth Malgus declared his own empire during the Battle of Ilum, though the latter was defeated by the combined forces of the Republic and the Empire.

The Barsen'thor's insight on the Jedi Council became invaluable for the war effort, and the Jedi Master's remarkable Force affinity and previous achievements were respected by fellow Council members, including Grand Master Shan. As the war progressed, however, duty often called the Barsen'thor away from the Council chambers on Tython, and the Jedi Master continued to travel across the galaxy and assist wherever help was needed. At one point, the Jedi Master and the Jedi's crew found themselves on the planet Rishi, a remote world infamous for being a haven for pirates. While in the city of Raider's Cove, the Barsen'thor and a companion were contacted via holocomm by Shan, who informed the Jedi Master that the Jedi Council missed their presence on Tython. Members of the Council had also decided that in order to ensure a bright future for the Jedi, they needed to preserve all the knowledge they possessed, especially the discoveries made by the Barsen'thor, including the information about the shielding technique, the Esh-kha and the Children of the Emperor, among other things. As such, the Council wanted the Jedi Master to construct a personal holocron, so future generations could consult it. According to Shan, a Bothan Jedi Master and a master of holocron craft, Kutri O'a&mdash;who was known for his prophetic abilities&mdash;had wanted to meet the Barsen'thor for a long time and had arrived on Rishi days earlier, guided by the Force. Following Shan's instructions, the Barsen'thor met with O'a, who spoke of the visions he had received. According to him, the Barsen'thor's knowledge would be required by various individuals in many possible future scenarios, be it the Esh-kha neo-Savants or a Lara Cordan, who would attempt to form the New Rift Alliance.

As the holocron was more than just a simple recording, being a reflection of the Barsen'thor's personality, O'a needed to scan the Jedi's brain to establish a baseline for the holocron's matrix. However, in order to undertake the procedure, the Barsen'thor first needed to achieve a state of calm and serenity, referred to as the Susheer State. On Tython, achieving such a state could be possible by using a meditation chamber, but, like most cultures, the native Rishii people also possessed rituals for attaining a higher state of consciousness, which could be used for the Jedi's purposes. The Bothan Jedi directed the Barsen'thor and a companion to the jungles of Rishi, in order to gather plants called kishu reeds for the ritual. During the process, the Jedi Master heard voices through the Force, visions of past and future. Guided by O'a via holocomm, the Jedi embraced those visions, meditated in the calming waters of a nearby waterfall and then burned the kishu reeds at a sacred Rishii location, meditating beside the fire. Doing those rituals helped the Barsen'thor achieve the Susheer State, and the individual returned to O'a, who had prepared an empty holocron for the procedure. In order for the device's crystal matrix to develop, it had to anchor itself to the Barsen'thor's knowledge and experiences. As such, O'a consulted the Force to receive glimpses of the future, asking the Barsen'thor what would the Jedi Master do in the situations presented. When the ritual was over, the Barsen'thor had successfully created a personal holocron, as requested by his fellow Jedi.

Shortly after the Barsen'thor departed from Rishi, a group of Republic troops and a group of Sith forces, led by Shan and Dark Council member Darth Marr, respectively, forged a temporarily coalition in order to fight the common threat of the Order of Revan. Revan, a Sith Lord-turned Jedi during the Jedi Civil War three hundred years ago, had resurfaced during the Cold War but had been presumed killed by the Empire's agents shortly thereafter. However, Revan had survived the encounter and had taken control of the Order of Revan, an Imperial cult that venerated him. Driven to madness, Revan intended to destroy the Emperor once and for all, but as the Emperor lingered in a weakened, non-corporeal state on the moon of Yavin 4 after his defeat at the hands of the Jedi, Revan first needed to bring him back to a physical form. In order to do that, the mad Jedi planned to use a Sith artifact hidden inside the Temple of Sacrifice on the moon. The machine possessed the ability to consume all life on the moon, producing enough power to resurrect the Emperor. Members of the Republic-Imperial coalition agreed that Revan would be unable to defeat the Emperor, and they hoped to stop Revan from bringing him to life. The Barsen'thor was among the heroes of the Republic who joined the fight against Revan on Yavin 4. In the end, Revan was defeated, but all the destruction that had been produced by the fight between the Coalition and the Revanites had unwittingly served the Emperor's purposes, empowering his spirit and allowing him to escape to the outside galaxy.

At the end of the fight, Shan tasked the Barsen'thor, as one of the most powerful and experienced Jedi Council members, to personally lead the search for the newly reborn Sith Emperor, in order to learn his secrets and find ways to stop him once and for all. According to Kutri O'a's visions, the Barsen'thor could have possibly attained many other titles during the years to come, such as the Seneshal, the Hierophant of the Jal Shey, and the Betrayer of Balmorra. O'a also foresaw that after the Barsen'thor's death, Nadia Grell would take her Master's holocron and bury it in the forests of Sarkhai. In one future scenario, it would be found by a Sith who wanted to learn to be as powerful as the Barsen'thor. In another future, where the Republic would have fallen, the holocron would be found by a half-trained Sarkhai Jedi, who sought to use its secrets to achieve revenge on those responsible for the Republic's downfall.

A sharp mind and a pure soul
"Such a bright, inquisitive mind. It has been an honor to teach you."

- Master Nomi Da-Boda, after teaching the shielding ritual to the Consular

Even at a young age, the individual displayed great wisdom and desire for knowledge. While teaching the Consular the shielding technique, even the renowned Jedi Masters of the Noetikons were surprised to encounter such inquisitiveness. The Barsen'thor's sharp mind allowed the Jedi to answer the Master of Questions' riddles in order to escape Baddeg's trap on Coruscant, and recognize the appearance of the Voss commandos as a sign Gaden-Ko had been looking for on Voss. A servant of the light side of the Force, the Jedi never diverged from its path, even if doing so would have made things easier for the Jedi. On Tatooine, the Jedi chose to destroy Master Vossan's research on augmenting the Sand People, which could have been invaluable in the war against the Empire. The Barsen'thor refused to accept Valon's offer of allegiance on Hoth, believing that Iresso's men deserved to see the criminal brought to justice. Striving to be honest with the population of Balmorra, the Jedi refused Zenith's offer to cover up President Galthe's broken state. As a Jedi Master, the Barsen'thor tried to teach those virtues to the Jedi's Padawan, stopping Nadia from killing Stark in anger, as doing so would have brought her close to the dark side. The Consular adhered to the Republic laws regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, agreeing with Doctor Jurnak's demands to provide an escort for him, and preventing Zenith from killing the captive Imperial Trabier on Balmorra.

The Barsen'thor was never indifferent to the suffering of others and strove to help those in need. On Coruscant, the Jedi healed the Black Sun smuggler suffering from the pain caused by the Noetikon inside of him. On Taris, when presented with the choice of saving the Junction's workers or the facility itself, the Barsen'thor chose the people. The Barsen'thor helped the Jawas on Tatooine to get their spare parts back and taught the cyborg Benx on Balmorra certain Jedi techniques that helped lessen the strain on his computerized brain. Realizing that the imprisonment of the Balmorran population was a trap set up by Darth Lachris, the Consular decided to rescue them nonetheless. Not wiling to cause any harm to come to innocents because of the Jedi's mission, the Barsen'thor refused to kill the Hutt spice factory workers on Nar Shaddaa, having Cedrax come up with the alternative plan of using the resonator key instead. When deciding the fate of the sabotaged Fortitude, the Jedi Master chose to go with Nadia's plan, as the alternative could have had catastrophic consequences for the population of Deralia. When a wounded Imperial commando engineer on Hoth begged for mercy, the Barsen'thor healed him and let him go after extracting the required information. The Jedi applied that philosophy even to the psychotic prisoners on Belsavis, having Geland release them from their cells to avoid being killed by the exposure to toxins, only to have the Barsen'thor attacked by many of those released prisoners. The Jedi did not let the Rakata monument which they had activated on Hoth remain active, destroying it to prevent it from brainwashing innocent strangers. On Voss, seeing the Nautolan Lefry Kaonai scared to stay alone, the Consular stayed with the man until the Republic extraction team arrived. The Jedi also displayed honesty by returning the valuable Force crystal recovered from the Gormak mining camp to the Voss, instead of keeping it for personal needs. Feeling responsibility for forces under the Jedi's command, the Consular risked the Jedi's own life to disarm as much of the detonite explosives aboard the Javelin as possible in order to save the Rift Alliance fleet from the explosion. The Jedi displayed compassion even to enemies, believing that the traitorous Farash did not deserve death penalty. When offered with the chance to kill all hostile Esh-kha who were still in stasis, the Barsen'thor chose to continue keeping them in suspended animation.

As a member of the Jedi Council, the Barsen'thor was known for being a wise presence, yet the Jedi Master preferred to operate in the field to spending time on Tython. Fellow Council members respected the Barsen'thor's achievements, and they considered that preserving the Barsen'thor's knowledge was of great importance to the entire Jedi Order. Later, Grand Master Shan trusted the Barsen'thor with the crucial mission to find ways to stop the Sith Emperor. Master O'a was also enthralled by the Barsen'thor's deeds and had wanted to meet the Consular for a long time, until they finally met on Rishi.

Negotiating proficiency and belief in redemption
"Kill me, and you will kill every Master I have ever infected. Every one! Shielded or not, they are still bound to me. But what choice do you have? You cannot let me live, and I am deathless. Your shielding talent cannot harm me. You've lost!''" "''No matter what, Parkanas will be freed from you, Morrhage."

- The Barsen'thor saves Parkanas Tark from the spirit of Morrhage

When presented with a conflict situation, the Barsen'thor always sought to find a peaceful solution to the problem. During the search for the Fount of Rajivari, the Jedi convinced the Twi'leks under Raloch's command that their master had been corrupted and thus avoided confrontation with them. On Taris, when Padawan Vauranelle started to believe her Master's mad ramblings, the Jedi showed the young woman that Tykan was not sane. When confronted by the Hutt Cartel on Nar Shaddaa, the Jedi first assured them of having nothing to do with the attacks on the Hutt spice business and later negotiated a deal with the Cartel to let the Jedi Order have Duras Fain. While making way to Fain's hideout, the Jedi avoided killing Imperial soldiers when possible, instead using distraction and negotiation to deal with them. Aboard the Carida, the Consular talked down Fain's daughter from committing suicide and made her exit the airlock. A diplomat and a negotiator, the Jedi swayed the mercenary Astar Vox to serve House Teral. Later, the Consular diffused the tensions caused by the plague-affected Garen at the Alderaan peace summit and chose not to disturb the volatile situation by asking to strip House Ulgo of their status. Serving as an envoy to the Rift Alliance, the Barsen'thor made everything possible to meet the group's needs. Although they were initially distrustful of the Jedi, by the time of the Children of the Emperor crisis, every member of the Rift Alliance was willing to follow the Barsen'thor in the Jedi's mission to the very end. Some did so out of respect, while Cordan was also grateful for the liberation of his world and was willing to follow the Jedi no matter what.

While negotiating a deal with Balmorra's corporations, the Barsen'thor refused to use Director Fenn's family as a bargaining chip, instead securing the deal with promises to lessen Jedi control over the production of weapons. The Jedi's negotiation skills worked even with non-organic opponents, such as the asylum custodian droid on Belsavis, who was successfully convinced by the Consular that Commander Geland was a traitor. When trying to help others, the Barsen'thor displayed great selflessness, using the shielding technique multiple times, aware of the dangers it presented to oneself,      even trying to use it, albeit unsuccessfully, to restore President Galthe. On Voss, the Jedi agreed to participate in the healing ritual to save Gaden-Ko, which caused the Barsen'thor to experience the injured man's pain.

The Jedi often took time to meditate in order to regain strength and heal. The Barsen'thor strongly believed in the possibility of redemption for everyone. They refused to kill Raloch, instead having the man be accepted into the Jedi Order. Knowing that although killing Vivicar would stop the Dark Plague forever but would also kill the affected Masters, the Consular instead shielded him, saving Parkanas Tark and the Masters but risking the possibility of Morrhage's return at some point in the future. Later, the Jedi Master persuaded Darth Lachris's student, Serrus, to abandon the dark side, by reminding the man of his family. In the final moments of Lord Shendan, the Barsen'thor was successful in making the man feel the serenity of the holy place they were in. When assaulting Guardian Hold Four, the Jedi also tried to save Corporal Daresha but was unsuccessful in doing so, a fact which the First Son used to try to convince the Barsen'thor of the Consular's failure as a Jedi. However, the Jedi soon proved the First Son wrong. After appealing multiple times to Bakarn's personality on Corellia, the Barsen'thor was able to redeem the Jedi Master during their final confrontation.

Qyzen Fess


"I am past middle of life. Not so many years ahead. But plenty to see us win glory. Now come, Herald. Galaxy moves around us."

- Qyzen Fess

Unlike many members of his species, Fess did not become a mercenary, choosing the path of a hunter instead. Devoted to his goddess, the Scorekeeper, he traveled the galaxy for years, earning Jagganath points. After witnessing the Consular's deeds on Tython, Fess came to regard the Jedi as the Scorekeeper's Herald and decided to join the Jedi in all future endeavors. He thought that his participation in the fight against Raloch was great honor for him. Although he was disgraced by losing all of his points due to his capture by Raloch, Fess believed that him meeting the Herald balanced out the loss. During his travels, Fess had witnessed firsthand the prejudice other people felt toward Trandoshans, until Par showed kindness toward him and became his friend. By joining the Jedi's crew, the Trandoshan hoped that the Herald would become his friend as well. The hunter would often share stories of his past hunts with the Herald, telling the Jedi about how he had lost his eye, among other exploits. Although he was often not pleased with the Consular's tendency to spare enemies, Fess believed that the Jedi did so to let others hunt those enemies. The Trandoshan respected the Barsen'thor as a warrior, believing that the Herald had the heart of a Trandoshan hunter, and he considered the Herald's enemies, especially the Sith, to be worthy prey. He viewed the Barsen'thor as a great example, pushing himself farther and training harder to match the Jedi. By the time he had joined the Herald, Fess was at his species' midlife point. According to Trandoshan customs, Fess subjected himself to the shko-yagu, a ritual that signified his rebirth and involved contemplation, fasting, and required him to continue hunting throughout it. Few Trandoshans lived long enough to reach shko-yagu, and fewer survived it, due to its painful nature, as it required drinking medicine that induced fever and skin molt.. The Barsen'thor helped Fess go through the shko-yagu, as well as helping him deal with the traitorous Trandoshan Veneb Drassk. As a sign of his gratitude, Fess swore his loyalty to the Herald for the rest of his days.

Tharan Cedrax and Holiday


"I do believe I'm really feeling the benefits of some fresh air and exercise. Who would have thought? And the company of a true intellectual equal hasn't hurt either."

- Tharan Cedrax

A charmer, mathematical card-counting genius, and inventor of pioneering technological advances, Cedrax was bored with the lifestyle he led on Nar Shaddaa. That lifestyle was shaken up by the Consular's arrival on Nar Shaddaa. Thrilled with the prospect of seeking more adventure, Cedrax joined the Barsen'thor's crew, bringing his holographic companion Holiday with him. Although he was friends with two Jedi Masters, Duras Fain and Syo Bakarn, Cedrax nonetheless did not tolerate anything related to Jedi mysticism and usage of the Force to persuade others. Despite the fact that the Barsen'thor displayed the traits he disliked, Cedrax considered the Jedi an intellectual equal, who possessed a rational mind. While aboard the Consular's ship, Cedrax received an invitation to the famous Lumenatus Club, a prestigious organization for the most respected scientists. Seeing the invitation as a chance to prove himself the best scientist in the galaxy at the club's annual symposium, Cedrax wanted to create a technological marvel to show to his peers. Using his knowledge of exo-technology, Cedrax attempted to create the Vandrayk Generator, a machine theorized hundreds of years ago by the inventor Gorman Vandrayk. Although he was successful at doing so, Cedrax's invention would only work for a minute if activated, after which its invaluable core would burn out. However, the core could also be used to increase Holiday's sentience drastically. Although a minute of operation would be enough to win the symposium, Cedrax did not activate the Generator, instead choosing to use the generator's core for Holiday.

A unique creation, Holiday was a sentient hologram, alive in every aspect except for a physical body; she could project herself through any holographic device. Emotional and cheerful, Holiday made herself feel at home aboard the Barsen'thor's ship at the very start, attempting to give "flair" to its computer systems. Rescued by Cedrax from the clutches of Glorzo the Hutt in a deadly contest, Holiday felt deep attachment to, even love for, the scientist and was extremely protective of him. When Cedrax became obsessed with the Vandrayk Generator, Holiday felt worried for him and pleaded the Barsen'thor to ask Cedrax to take a break. Although the Consular suspected that Holiday's love may have been programmed in by Cedrax himself, Holiday did not care even if that were the case, happy to have those feelings no matter where they came from. Overall, Holiday thought that the Barsen'thor was very kind to her. She often assisted the Jedi in computer-related tasks, as well as combat with enemies. Both Cedrax and Holiday considered the Jedi their good friend, and were so addicted to adventuring life that they decided to stay aboard the Jedi's ship indefinitely.

Zenith


"Want to let you know. Kind of enjoyed working with you. Not often my comrades survive this long.[&hellip;]Anyway, I just wanted to say. I&hellip;trust you. So I'd better stick around. Keep you alive. Trustworthy people are hard to come by."

- Zenith, to the Barsen'thor

When he joined the Consular's crew, Zenith was a hardened, battle-worn individual who harbored deep hatred for the Empire. So much so, that Cordan did not want him to be a part of his government, fearing that Zenith's hatred would be detrimental to the rebuilding of Balmorra. Nonetheless, after joining the Barsen'thor, Zenith began a campaign to run for the post of the opposition leader in Balmorran government, to critique Cordan and provide his own point of view, a campaign that was successful with the Barsen'thor's advice. Once a member of the resistance cell led by his deceased mentor Gray Star, Zenith followed Gray Star's teachings, not letting his guard down and thinking that every friend was a potential enemy. Not used to having political power, Zenith was also at a loss of what to do in peaceful times. During his political campaign, Zenith displayed much of the ruthlessness that Cordan so feared, willing to lie, orchestrate accidents to happen to his opponents and severely punish collaborators who had worked with Imperial occupation forces. Although it was initially hard to open up to anyone for him, eventually Zenith came to trust the Barsen'thor. Believing the Jedi to be "all right," Zenith was willing to stay at the Jedi's side to protect the latter from harm.

Felix Iresso


"I want you to know I'm with you to the end. Win or lose. I'd rather be your lieutenant than a Republic colonel. Doesn't matter what comes next for us. I've got your back."

- Lieutenant Iresso

A Republic soldier who had been kicked from posting to posting around the galaxy until they ended up assigned to the Rift Alliance Coalition Forces on Hoth, Iresso was happy to leave the frozen planet. Although he was going to miss his unit, he felt happy knowing that they were going home. Although he had met few Jedi in his life, Iresso believed that the Barsen'thor was more proactive than those he did meet. He thought that there was more to life than work, and advised the Consular that even Jedi should sometimes take a break. Iresso was eager to fight the Empire and admired the Jedi's fighting style, especially the Barsen'thor's ability to both follow tactics and improvise when needed. He subsequently tried to adjust his own style to match. Striving to be honest with the Jedi, Iresso told the Barsen'thor that the reason he had been transferred so many times was because he had been once captured by the Empire. During a scouting mission to Althir with his friend Milo Pellam, Iresso and Pellam had been captured by Imperial forces. Iresso had eventually escaped, but he had lost seven days of his life from his memory. When Pellam&mdash;who had not been seen since that day&mdash;resurfaced, Iresso spoke with the man, finding him in a broken state of mind, talking about a glowing box the Imperials had used on both of them. Eventually, Iresso located one of his torturers, the defected Imperial doctor Sera Fray, who revealed that the glowing box was in fact a Sith holocron planted inside Iresso's mind on the orders of the Sith Darth Ouzal. The procedure had broken Pellam completely, but Iresso had managed to only lose a portion of his memory. The Barsen'thor helped the soldier handle the fact that he was carrying a library of Sith knowledge in his brain, and Iresso was thankful for the fact that the Jedi was always near when he needed the moral support. Believing that he could always count on the Barsen'thor, Iresso wanted to stay aboard the ship. Considering the Consular's case worth fighting for, the Lieutenant came to regard his service aboard the Barsen'thor's ship as the best posting he ever had, and promised to always cover the Jedi's back when needed. According to Kutri O'a's visions, in one future scenario, Iresso would die to defeat a Sith individual. Centuries later, one of the Sith's descendants would find the Barsen'thor's holocron.

Nadia Grell


"I've been thinking about home. The training's helped me be honest with myself. I'm not going back. I'll be their representative, but too much has happened for me to just settle there again. And I'm happy about that. You've given me a new life. All I want is to see the next horizon, and keep learning. With you."

- Nadia Grell, speaking to her Master

The Barsen'thor first met Nadia aboard the Fortitude, and she and her father stayed aboard the Jedi's ship alongside other members of the Rift Alliance after that. A powerful Force-sensitive, Nadia was able to amplify her powers with her raw emotions. When her father was killed, the Barsen'thor accepted Nadia as a Padawan in honor of the man's final will. It was very hard for the young woman to deal with the loss of her father, as she had dreams of him calling her. She then asked her Master how the Barsen'thor managed to stay so composed and deal with the constant displays of violence around them. Nadia was very loyal and protective of her friends, including the Barsen'thor. With the death of her father, she was appointed by the royal family as the new representative of Sarkhai to the Republic. The Consular subsequently helped her acquaint herself with the new responsibilities and settle various disputes on her homeworld. Eager to learn, Nadia often asked her Master on her progress as a Padawan. She herself felt that the training helped her better control her powers and made her feel more herself. As part of her learning process, Nadia asked her Master what being a Padawan meant, and she wanted to visit Tython to see the Jedi homeworld with her own eyes. Although she missed her home, the girl wanted to stay at the Barsen'thor's side to explore the galaxy and learn as much as possible about being a Jedi. As her training progressed, Nadia started to feel a Force bond with her Master, feeling the Consular's presence and seeing through the Barsen'thor's eyes across great distances.

Powers and abilities
"A Padawan who was stronger in the Force at four years old than I was at fifteen?"

- Master Yuon Par regards her Padawan's strength and innate power

Considered a child prodigy, the Barsen'thor had first Force powers manifest very early in life. The individual had a remarkable connection with the Force, stronger than many Jedi of the current era, including their own Master, Yuon Par. Trained as a Jedi Consular, the Barsen'thor was a master of wielding the Force, both to bolster own strength as well as to weaken enemies. The Jedi was able to move with Force-enhanced speed and use a variety of powers that tempered with the minds of enemies. The Jedi was at least somewhat proficient with Force healing, using it to heal an Imperial engineer on Hoth, Hallow Voice on Belsavis, Gaden-Ko on Voss, and to heal themselves during the battle with the First Son. The Barsen'thor was especially versed in telekinesis, utilizing Force push in battles with Aelan Kalder and the First Son, as well as using it to push Gaden-Ko away from Sophia Farash. While helping the lost expedition on Taris, the Consular lifted a large piece of debris to save people trapped beneath it and then used the Force to levitate two more expedition members, rescuing them from the fire. While trying to save the workers of the Junction, the Jedi used the Force to break open a blast door. Later, when trying to seal the rakghoul tunnels in the Republic base on Taris, the Barsen'thor used the Force to collapse rock formations, both directly and by picking up and throwing a load lifter into the rocks. When Commander Geland blocked passage to Hallow Voice's chamber with a heavy blast door, the Consular was able to channel so much Force that the door was ripped to shreds. While rescuing the trapped companion from the escape pod, the Jedi used the Force to remove the pod's jammed hatch. The Consular's Jedi training also allowed the Barsen'thor to survive the exposure to any airborne toxins by holding breath for prolonged periods of time.

Most notable, the Barsen'thor was the only Jedi of the time to have learned the shielding technique from the Noetikons, applying it to remove Sith corruption or harmful effects of a target. This shielding technique was used primarily to deal with the Dark Plague created by Terrak Morrhage, and the Barsen'thor could indeed remove the harmful effects of the plague from its victims, although it drained the Jedi's own life force with each use. However, unlike the last known practitioner of the technique, the Barsen'thor was able to defeat Morrhage without driving oneself to death. The technique was limited to Force-induced corruption and could not help those whose mind had been shattered through physical torture. The Barsen'thor had at least a minor proficiency in wielding a lightsaber. During the training on Tython, the Consular wielded a training saber. Eventually, the Padawan used the hilt of the First Blade to construct a lightsaber, which initially had a green-colored lightsaber crystal. Shortly after being promoted from Padawan, the Jedi chose an advanced specialization, either that of Jedi Sage or Jedi Shadow. Despite not necessarily looking like a formidable opponent to many of the Jedi's enemies, the Barsen'thor's skills with the lightsaber and mastery of the Force were enough to defeat multiple dangerous opponents, including Nalen Raloch, Lord Vivicar, Captain Valon, many Children of the Emperor&mdash;Augin Blaesus, Geland, Sophia Farash, Aelan Kalder, Daresha, Saiak &mdash;and even the First Son himself.

In addition to speaking Galactic Basic Standard, the Barsen'thor was versed in many languages of the galaxy. The Jedi could understand Dosh, Gand, Binary, Nikto Jawaese, Shyriiwook, Sullustese, Selkath, Rakata Esh-kha and Mandaba.

Behind the scenes
"Trained in the arts of the Force, driven by curiosity and the search for knowledge, the Jedi Consular sees that through the Force, all things are connected."

- Joanna Berry, the writer of the Consular storyline

The Barsen'thor represents the playable Jedi Consular character from the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic released by BioWare and LucasArts on December 20, 2011. The storyline of the Consular character was written by Joanna Berry with Daniel Erickson serving as the lead writer on the entire project, responsible for overall story and for maintaining consistency between the classes. According to Berry, the main goal of the Consular storyline was to explore how the Jedi faced the dark side of the Force, how they used their power and wisdom and not only lightsaber skills, and how they strove to serve the Republic. The main element of the story was mystery and the quest for truth, using intelligence and courage to achieve the goal. Berry compared the Consular's journey to the growth of the Obi-Wan Kenobi character from the Star Wars film series. She also deliberately wrote many situations which force the player to make difficult choices&mdash;choosing either what is morally right or what can help win the war with the Empire.

The male Consular is voiced by Nolan North and the female by Athena Karkanis. This article only describes the events of the Consular storyline, not including any of the content which can be completed by members of any class: such as planetary quest-chains, sidequests, bonus quests, daily quest hubs, periodic game events, PvP content, and on-rails space missions. Group content such as heroic missions, flashpoints, and operations is also not described, since the group can consist of any combination of the four Republic classes. The 2013 Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel digital expansion introduced Chapter Four of the class stories, with Republic characters being called by Chancellor Saresh to solve the crisis on the Hutt-occupied planet Makeb. However, the events of the expansion are the same for all four Republic classes&mdash;the Jedi Consular, the Jedi Knight, the Trooper, and the Smuggler&mdash;with minor differences in dialogue. Since it has not been confirmed which of the four Republic classes canonically participated in the mission to Makeb, the events of Rise of the Hutt Cartel are also omitted from this article. The 2014 Galactic Starfighter and Galactic Strongholds expansions largely lacked story content and were focused on player-versus-player space combat and player housing, respectively. Later that year, another story-driven expansion, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan, was released, comprising Chapter 5 of the game's characters' stories. Most of the expansion was once again the same for every class. However, each class was presented with one unique mission specific to their previous story, as well as a different ending cutscene conversation. As such, this article includes the unique class mission and assumes that the Barsen'thor participated in the fight on Yavin 4 in order to incorporate the unique ending. However, it refrains from mentioning the specifics of the other missions of the expansion.

Cut content
Several text files within The Old Republic game files contain mentions of a mission that was supposed to take the Consular to the planet Ord Mantell early in Chapter One. Taking place at some point after the events on Coruscant but before the mission to Tatooine, the mission was supposed to have involved the Consular investigating Vivicar's presence on the planet. According to unused conversation files with Syo Bakarn, the mission would have somehow involved an individual named Kellian Zell. However, none of that content made it into the final version of the Consular story, and the character never visits Ord Mantell in the finished game. According to the files, another major plot point was cut from the final game: during the Battle of Corellia, the First Son was originally going to contact the Barsen'thor, informing the Jedi about an Imperial fleet he had dispatched to conquer Sarkhai. In response, Nadia was supposed to leave to defend her homeworld, temporarily locking her out as a companion. The Consular's alignment choices would have then determined the ease at which the Sarkhai repelled the attack, either making it an easy victory for Nadia's people or a hard-fought one.

Character identity and customization
"You're the "Barsen'thor," the Warden of the Jedi Order, right?"

- Tai Cordan, among other NPCs, addresses the player character as the Barsen'thor

Since The Old Republic is largely a customizable game, many aspects of the Consular character, such as species, gender, name and personality, are player determined. During the creation of the character, the following species are available initially: Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Twi'lek, or Zabrak. Since Game Update 1.2: Legacy, four additional species&mdash;Cyborg, Rattataki, Chiss, and Sith pureblood&mdash;can be unlocked by reaching level 50 with another character of that species. Finally, additional species options, such as Cathar, can be purchased from the in-game Cartel Market. Another customizable feature is the advanced class, which is mainly a gameplay mechanic and bears no influence on the storyline. Each of the advanced classes grants the Consular character access to different Force abilities, either increasing the character's damage (both classes), healing (Sages only), or defense (Shadows only). Therefore, the canonical status of the Consular as a Sage or a Shadow cannot be determined. Due to the character name being chosen by each individual player, the Consular character is never referred to by name throughout the game except for in loading screens, which feature game summaries similar to the opening crawls that appeared in the Star Wars films. As the player progresses through the class storyline, the summaries change to reflect the current events. The player-created name appears in these summaries, but not in any in-game voice material or written content.

This article therefore addresses the character in a gender-neutral manner, using the title "Barsen'thor," which is awarded after the completion of Chapter One of the storyline. The game features multiple choices that drive the character toward either the light side or the dark side. Although the outcome of the storyline remains largely the same regardless of the player's choices&mdash;Nalen Raloch is defeated, Terrak Morrhage is stopped and his plague is cured, the Rift Alliance stays with the Republic, all of the companions join the player's party, and the Children of the Emperor are defeated&mdash;many aspects of the story may vary depending on the player's actions. Choosing dark side options can lead to Raloch and Vivicar being killed &mdash;the latter leading to the deaths of dozens Jedi Masters &mdash;Captain Valon evading justice and joining with the Barsen'thor, and the player killing Syo Bakarn/the First Son instead of redeeming him. Any of the afflicted Jedi in Chapter One, including Yuon Par, can be also killed instead of shielded. A dark-side character is also not given the seat on the Jedi Council, rather being recognized for the displayed ruthless methods of command and granted the title of Jedi General. However, since the Consular is a Republic-allied character, this article assumes that the player always chooses options that result in maximum light side points, when available.

The 2012 reference book Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia included a two-page summary of the Consular storyline, accompanied by several screenshots. One image served to illustrate the Consular fighting Flesh Raiders on Tython. The Consular was depicted as a Human female, wielding a double-bladed lightsaber, which is used by the Jedi Shadow advanced class. Another image depicted the Consular as a Twi'lek during the confrontation with Lord Vivicar, and the third one depicted the Barsen'thor during a meeting with the Rift Alliance, wearing full armor with facial features fully obscured. However, one of the writers of the Encyclopedia, Hall Hood, later confirmed via Twitter that the images were not meant to be taken as canon, and that "canonical" character identities are still determined by each individual player.

Companions and romances
"Listen, listen. For us&mdash;for my people&mdash;marriage isn't&hellip;it's not just a ritual. It's something that changes, and grows. First, we make a promise. "All seasons, all worlds. Under stars, and earth. You, and I.''" "All seasons, all worlds. Under stars&hellip;and earth. You, and I, Nadia." "''I never thought anyone would say those words to me. I love you. I know this is just the beginning for us."

- Nadia Grell and the male Consular

"I always try to think a few steps ahead. If you want things to turn out right, you've got to make it happen. That's what we're fighting for. People being free to make plans, and live however they want. Like, settling down somewhere, with their beautiful Jedi Master.''" "Are you proposing?" "Yes, I am. I love you. I want to spend my life with you&hellip;if you'll have me." "There's nothing I'd like more." "''Then one day we'll have a huge ceremony. On Tython. Or wherever you'd like. And invite everyone. But for now, take my promise. I'm yours, Barsen'thor of the Jedi. Forever."

- Lieutenant Iresso proposes to the female Consular

Throughout the course of the game, the player is joined by five storyline-related companions. The first, Qyzen Fess, is received on Tython near the end of the Prologue, and the second, Tharan Cedrax, joins after the events on Nar Shaddaa in Chapter One. The third, Zenith, joins at the end of the Balmorra storyline in Chapter 2, and the fourth, Lieutenant Iresso, is acquired on Hoth. The fifth companion is Nadia Grell, who, despite joining the player's crew at the start of Chapter 2 as an NPC, only becomes available for use as a companion after the mission to the Euphony at the end of the Belsavis quest line in Chapter Three. A sixth companion, the ship droid C2-N2, is acquired when the player receives a personal ship at the end of the Coruscant storyline, although his participation in the story is limited to comments made each time the player returns to the ship. However, only one companion may accompany the player at any given time. For most of the game, the player can select the companion, with a few notable exceptions. Qyzen Fess accompanies the player for the final two missions on Tython, and all of the Coruscant missions, after which the player can select C2-N2 as a companion. Tharan Cedrax is required as a companion for the final mission on Nar Shaddaa, and Zenith accompanies the player during the final mission on Balmorra, while Nadia Grell is required for the mission to the Euphony. Therefore, those missions aside, this article refrains from mentioning the Barsen'thor's companion, since it could have been either one. All of the companions with the exception of C2-N2 have over a dozen conversations which are unlocked as the player levels up and gains affection with each character. In addition to that, Qyzen Fess also has three companion missions, taking place on Tatooine, Alderaan, and Taris, which detail the story of the hunt for Veneb Dressk. Like any character class in the game, the Consular can also gain access to two more optional companions, the assassin droid HK-51 and the Ewok female mercenary Treek.

If the player character is male, he can romance Nadia Grell by selecting flirt-related responses during their conversations. If the character is female, Lieutenant Iresso can be romanced. Both romances may culminate in the marriage of the player character and the respective companion. The romanced companion also sends the player several love letters afterward. In those letters, Nadia talks about how her dreams have gotten better, sends the Consular some gifts from Sarkhai, and contemplates that the Jedi Order's ban on marriage might be wrong. Iresso tells the Consular that he keeps thinking of her, invites her to watch a holovid, Squad 223: Mission Zero, he remembers from his youth, and tells her about a call he has received from a Jedi Master on Tython, who was asking about the Barsen'thor.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Starfighter
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Strongholds
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan