Darth Maladi

"Be careful Maladi, that you do not scheme for scheming's sake. Do not become so enamored of your plotting that you lose sight of your goal."

- Darth Krayt

Darth Maladi was a Devaronian female who served as a Sith Lady in Darth Krayt's Sith Order during Krayt's reign as Emperor. She was the head of Sith Intelligence and Assassination, adept in the ways of inquisition and torture, and a specialist in the art of mental manipulation. A skilled scientist, she tirelessly experimented with ways to pervert science to serve the Sith cause, and also manufactured and dealt the narcotic ixetal cilona. She was responsible for the sabotage of the government-sponsored project to terraform Ossus. Maladi, along with High Moff Morlish Veed, the leader of the Moff Council, and his partner, Nyna Calixte, the Director of Imperial Intelligence, started the Sith-Imperial War in 127 ABY, which saw the near-destruction of the Galactic Alliance, the leading government at the time, and the New Jedi Order&mdash;the major opponents of the Sith. In 137 ABY, Krayt ordered Maladi to find and dispose of the former Emperor, Roan Fel, and to capture Cade Skywalker, the last remaining member of the Skywalker family. Though she failed with the former task, the Sith were able to capture Skywalker, whom Maladi tortured to find his limits. However, Skywalker escaped, and Maladi was forced to work with Rav, a Feeorin pirate for whom Skywalker had once worked, to find the fugitive.

Early life
"You were born Sith."

- Darth Nihl

Darth Maladi was born and raised a part of the One Sith, an organization of Sith in hiding headed by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Krayt, prior to the Sith-Imperial War in 127 ABY. She specialized as an Intelligence agent, and after her ascension to Sith Lady, became the Director of Sith Intelligence and Assassination.

Sith Imperial War
"You control the throne of the Empire, Dread Lord. By himself, Roan Fel is no danger to you."

- Darth Maladi, to Darth Krayt

Prior to 127 ABY, the New Jedi Order and Yuuzhan Vong had formed the Ossus Project to Vongform&mdash;a variation of terraforming&mdash;the planet Ossus, the location of the Jedi's training center and a planet that had been devastated by a supernova in the Cron Cluster over 4,000 years prior. This project had been championed by the Yuuzhan Vong Master Shaper Nei Rin and Kol Skywalker, a descendant of Grand Master Luke Skywalker and a senior member of the Jedi Council. Initially successful, the project spread to other worlds that were devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong War or had been previously laid to waste. Seeing an opportunity to break the Galactic Alliance, the foremost interplanetary government at the time, which the Jedi were aligned with, Darth Krayt commissioned Maladi to sabotage the project. The Sith's goals were to break the galaxy's trust of the Yuuzhan Vong, who were already distrusted because of the lives that had been lost during the war the Yuuzhan Vong had started, and to cast suspicion on the Jedi by extension, who entrusted the the aliens with the Vongforming of the wasted worlds. Maladi mutated the Yorik-Kul coral seeds that the Yuuzhan Vong used to grow vegetation on the wasted worlds, and sentients on these planets soon found themselves with bony growths on their skin that could potentially kill them. During this time, Maladi contacted High Moff Morlish Veed, the leader of the Moff Council, and convinced him and his partner, Moff Nyna Calixte, to ally the Empire, led by Emperor Roan Fel, with the Sith when they decided to reveal themselves.

Since Maladi succeeded in sabotaging the Ossus Project, the Galactic Alliance began to split and crumble. The Empire, along with the majority of the galaxy's inhabitants, immediately blamed the Yuuzhan Vong, and planets began to ally with the enraged Empire. As a result of Maladi's deception, the Imperial Moffs convinced Fel to go to war in 127 ABY. A year into the war, Krayt's Sith Order decided to finally reveal itself. The alliance that Maladi had created with Veed and the impatient Moff Council, which was desperate to win the war, gave Fel no choice but to ally with the Sith. During the war, Fel's support for the war was tepid at best, and he only went along with it as a political necessity.

After the Empire had captured Coruscant, Maladi, Veed, and Calixte staged an attack against the New Jedi Temple on Ossus, even though Fel forbade any attacks on the Jedi. The assault on Ossus was a success, seeing the deaths of most of the Jedi present, though a group of Padawans, including Cade Skywalker and Shado Vao, and the Zabrak Jedi Master Wolf Sazen, escaped. The attack effectively tore apart the New Jedi Order, though Imperial statistics showed that half of the Jedi had survived the Sith's wrath, much to the chagrin of Veed, who believed that they should have waited for the entire Order to gather on Ossus so that all the Jedi died at once. Maladi firmly believed that if they staged an attack later, it would have been a failure, and that bounty hunters and the Sith could kill the rest of the Jedi.

Krayt and Maladi then turned their attentions to supplanting Roan Fel, who never truly supported the war, and installing Krayt on the throne. From the time the Sith had first allied with the Empire, Fel had been untrustworthy of their Order, and never fully embraced them as allies. In order to gain Veed's support for the coup, Maladi made him believe that he himself would be Fel's successor. However, Calixte, Veed's partner, knew that Maladi was going to trick Veed into service with Krayt. Fearing she may become expendable, Calixte revealed to Fel that the Sith were going to kill him. Fel in turn escaped Coruscant, leaing a double in his place and ordered four Imperial Knights to protect the double. When Krayt, along with his Hand Darth Nihl, his most trusted servant Darth Wyyrlok, and Maladi, arrived to kill Fel, the Dark Lord instead killed Fel's double. Maladi watched the execution of the decoy and the Imperial Knights guarding him, as well as Krayt's announcement that he was Emperor. Krayt also forced the Moffs, including Veed and Calixte, to swear loyalty to him.

However, Krayt soon discerned that he had only killed Fel's double, not the actual Emperor. Krayt called Maladi to him, then Force pushed her to the ground as punishment for not discovering that Fel had replaced himself, since Maladi was the head of Sith Intelligence. Krayt revealed to her that Fel could have resisted the coup against him if he was there, and that because Fel was still alive, he could still pull together a military resistance against Krayt. As a result, Krayt tasked Maladi and Nihl with finding which Imperial commanders and Moffs were still loyal to Fel, and also to hunt the rest of the Jedi as well, whom Krayt believed could ally themselves with Fel to bring down the Sith.

Maladi decided to speak to Calixte, and found her in her living quarters. Maladi revealed to her that they had killed Fel's double and that she had sensed that Calixte had helped the real Fel escape. Calixte was quick to deny this, and explained to Maladi that only she could unite the Moffs, an objective Maladi needed done in order to find and kill Fel. Maladi pondered whether she should learn the truth of Calixte's plans and intentions by dissecting her mind using the Force, but decided to work with her instead. Maladi then charged Calixte with leading Imperial Intelligence, but also ordered her to report all security and espionage matters to Maladi herself and the Sith.

Seeking Skywalker
"Why do you put yourself through this? You owe this Cade nothing. He turned you in for the bounty on Jedi."

- Darth Maladi, while torturing Hosk Trey'lis



For seven years after Darth Krayt killed Fel's double and took control of the Empire, Maladi and her agents had no luck in finding the real Roan Fel, nor any success in eradicating the remaining Jedi. Fel and his allies would lead guerrilla attacks on Krayt's Empire, though with no significant damage, while the Jedi avoided exposure. Although he was now the ruler of the Empire, Krayt believed that while Fel lived, his power would be threatened. Tired of searching endlessly for the former Emperor, Krayt tried to threaten Fel's daughter Marasiah with the hope that a frightened Princess would run to her father's hiding place. The plan was a failure, as Marasiah managed to escape the Sith's grip with the help of a former Jedi named Cade Skywalker.

When the news of the existence of a Skywalker reached Darth Krayt's ears, he instructed Maladi to find him. Members of the Skywalker family were known to be exceptionally strong in the Force, and, judging from the decisions of the former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who had fallen to the dark side over 150 years earlier, Krayt assumed that Skywalker could be tempted to use the dark side as well. Krayt knew if he could turn Skywalker, the Jedi be a strong acquisition to his Empire. Additionally, Skywalker's powerful healing abilities had been brought to Krayt's attention, which made him even more precious to Krayt, since his body was failing due to Yorik-kul implants. Skywalker could potentially heal Krayt of his ailment, which would allow Krayt to live long enough to stabilize the galaxy.

In the search for Skywalker, Maladi interrogated and tortured the Bothan Jedi Master Hosk Trey'lis, who had been delivered to the Sith for the bounty cast upon living Jedi. What made Trey'lis important, more than the fact that he was a Jedi, was the person who had hunted him down: Cade Skywalker. Trey'lis could not resist the ruthless interrogation and torture methods of Maladi, and eventually told her everything he knew about young Skywalker, such as his ability in the Force, and that his companions were Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue. With the information she gleaned from the captured Jedi, Maladi ordered Calixte to personally take command of the search, and to bring Skywalker alive. When Calixte tried to find out more about Skywalker, including why the Sith wanted him alive, Maladi would only reveal to her that he was the last remaining Skywalker. After Calixte left the interrogation laboratory, Maladi wondered to herself why it was that Skywalker was needed alive.

Calixte would reveal to her partner, High Moff Veed, her mission to capture Skywalker, and he proposed that he and Calixte should capture Skywalker and use him as a pawn against the Sith. However, Maladi had replaced Calixte's operatives with her own, so Calixte had used her other persona, "Morrigan Corde," to further her own motives. Calixte had already learned that Skywalker was on The Wheel, a neutral space station in the Mid Rim. However, one of Maladi's dispatched agents, Jor Torlin, also discovered that Skywalker was on The Wheel through his associate, Haako. Upon traveling to the Wheel, the two agents found that Skywalker had left the station. Torlin suggested to Calixte, now disguised as Corde, that Skywalker may have gone to Ossus, where he had trained as a Jedi. However, upon arriving on Ossus, the disguised Calixte killed Torlin. She did not want to capture Skywalker, who was secretly her own son, and betrayed Maladi covertly to keep Skywalker out of the Sith's hands.

Seeking Fel
"Roan Fel has bested my assassin and that will make him complacent. The next attack, he thinks, will also come from without. The true killing stroke, when it comes, will come from within. Unlooked for and unsuspected."

- Darth Maladi

Meanwhile, Maladi finally discovered Fel's location&mdash;the deposed Emperor had taken control of the Empire's former capital planet of Bastion without a fight, as the Imperial troops there turned against the Sith Empire, and became part of what was considered the "True Empire," loyal only to Fel. Maladi knew, however, that the Sith could not attack Bastion directly due to its strong military defenses. She devised a different plan to execute Fel; she contacted the Imperial governor of Munto Codru, Vikar Dorn, and sent him in the Star Destroyer Dauntless to Bastion to pretend to join the rebels as deserters. The plan was to allow Sith Lord Darth Kruhl, who was also secretly aboard the Dauntless, to infiltrate Bastion and personally assassinate the deposed Emperor. That plan would turn out to be just one of Maladi's ploys to lower Fel's personal defenses for a future assassination attempt on him. However, Fel subsequently killed Kruhl and executed the crew of the Dauntless, with the exception of Dorn, whose life was spared so he could deliver Kruhl's lightsaber to the Sith as a message. Dorn did so, but Maladi killed him afterward because of his supposed failure.

Capture of Cade Skywalker
"Interesting. Despite a full day of injections, your body keeps purging itself of ixetal cilona."

- Darth Maladi, during Cade Skywalker's torture

The search for Cade Skywalker would prove to be easier than expected, as he decided to rescue Hosk Trey'lis from the Sith Temple. There, Skywalker rescued Trey'lis, but both were captured afterward by Krayt's hands, Darth Nihl and Darth Talon. After Skywalker's capture, Maladi reported to the Moff Council that the search for Skywalker was over. She did not report that they had captured Skywalker, explaining to Calixte that she did not need to know the results of the search, and that the Moff Council was to return to their original tasks. Within the Sith Temple, Maladi personally tortured Skywalker in order to bring him closer to the dark side. During his torture, Maladi discovered that Skywalker could purge himself of a lethal dose of the narcotic ixetal cilona&mdash;which Skywalker was addicted to&mdash;and Maladi noted to Krayt that Skywalker bent the drug to his will, much like a Sith. On Krayt's orders, Maladi implanted mutated Yorik-Kul coral seeds within Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn, so Skywalker could demonstrate to Krayt his healing powers in order to save them. Maladi used Force lightning on Skywalker's friends to activate the mutation in the seeds, and Skywalker responded as expected by healing them. In doing so, he became even closer to the dark side, and began listening to what Krayt had to offer should he choose to become a Sith.



When Krayt decided to invite Skywalker ito his chambers to further Skywalker down the path of the dark side, Krayt had Wyyrlok bar Nihl and Maladi entry. Noticing his anger at Krayt's decision, Maladi counseled Nihl on the matter. Nihl explained his resentment about the treatment that Talon, who had just become Krayt's hand, received from Darth Krayt, when Nihl felt that he was more deserving of special attention from him because he was Krayt's more experienced hand. Maladi reminded Nihl that, unlike Talon, he had not been born a Sith, and that he was only intended to be Krayt's fist. In defense, Nihl mentioned that Maladi was born a Sith and still was not invited into the chamber, though she said she did not question Krayt's decisions, except why he was keeping Skywalker alive. Later, when Skywalker pretended to join the Sith, both Maladi and Nihl discussed Krayt's obsession with him. Nihl claimed that if Krayt died with no heir, then there would be a power struggle, and claimed thay Skywalker would become Krayt's heir if Krayt was to die. Maladi disagreed, and reprimanded Nihl when she realized his discussions were based off holocrons that were forbidden in Krayt's order.

However, Krayt's intentions to have Skywalker willingly join the Sith never materialized. Skywalker tried to escape the Sith Temple, but he was apprehended by Darth Talon, who brought him to Krayt. There, Skywalker stabbed Talon in the stomach, severed Nihl's arm, and fought Krayt in a duel. Calixte, who was still disguised as Morrigan Corde, rescued Skywalker from the Sith Temple using a diversion created by Syn. Calixte, who did not want to see Skywalker become a Sith, took Skywalker to the Mynock, and with Syn and Blue, escaped Coruscant. Maladi, who had been betrayed by Calixte twice, never found out Calixte's involvement with Torlin's death and Skywalker's rescue.

Aftermath of Skywalker's escape
"Find him!"

- Darth Krayt

After Skywalker escaped the Sith, Maladi tended to the wounds Skywalker had inflicted on Nihl and Talon. Krayt, who was furious at the failures of his two hands, replaced them with Darth Stryfe, who had been serving as Krayt's fist. Finding Nihl's removed arm in salvageable condition, Maladi asked Krayt if she should reattach the limb. Krayt ordered Maladi to instead replace Nihl's arm with a Yuuzhan Vong organic arm, and to place Darth Talon in a healing trance, before she could die.

Krayt commanded the Sith to find Skywalker once again, as he still needed his healing abilities. After his escape, Skywalker, Syn, and Blue took the Grinning Liar, a ship they had borrowed from the Wookiee Chak back from the pirate Rav, whom they had once worked for, after a brief fight that Rav lost. Defeated, Rav contacted Maladi, swearing the Bloody Bones oath of loyalty to her, and promised to give any information regarding Skywalker in exchange for credits.

Personality and traits
"As you will, my Lord." "Yes, Maladi. Always as I will."

- Darth Maladi, acknowledging her loyalty to Darth Krayt

Darth Maladi, like most Sith in Darth Krayt's New Sith Order, knew complete obedience to her master. She always completed his orders as asked, though she sometimes wondered about some of Krayt's decisions, such as why he wanted Cade Skywalker alive. Maladi often tortured individuals, and took pride when she was able to successfully extract information out of them, evidenced when she garnered information about Skywalker from Hosk Trey'lis. Maladi was often in control of sentients, and barked commands at Nyna Calixte and Trey'lis, much like her master did himself. As the head of Sith Intelligence and Assassination, Maladi was adept at manipulating individuals without using the Force; along with Krayt, she instigated the Sith-Imperial War by manipulating Morlish Veed into an alliance with the Sith, convincing him that the Sith were going to seat him as Emperor, though Maladi instead put him in a position of servitude to Krayt.

Maladi loved to scheme the demise of others. She molded the perfect assassin in Darth Kruhl, who was ready to die in order to kill Roan Fel. When that failed, Maladi revealed that Kruhl had been part of a larger scheme to kill Roan Fel, and that she was planning to mold another to finally place the final killing stroke. However, Maladi's scheming sometimes blinded her, and she was so enamored with her plans that she almost lost sight of her Krayt-given goal&mdash;to eliminate Roan Fel. On one occasion, Krayt had to remind her to keep sight of her goal to kill Fel before she became too consumed with the plotting end. Maladi was also confident in the New Sith Order, believing that they were more successful than the older Sith, though Nyna Calixte believed that the present day Sith were like the Sith of old, and that that reminiscent quality was going to be the demise of Maladi and the rest of the Sith.

Maladi also had a different skin color that most Devaronian females, as well as little fur on her body. Most females of her species had a lot of fur that was was naturally white, and Maladi's skin color and fur quantities was the result of genetics.

Powers and abilities
Darth Maladi was a Sith trained from birth in the New Sith Order, and could use a lightsaber properly. Maladi, though adept at lightsaber skills, specialized in the ways of torture and assassination. She successfully extracted the information about Skywalker out of Hosk Trey'lis, a Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order. Maladi also used Force lightning successfully on Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue while torturing Cade Skywalker. Maladi also had adept abilities in Sith alchemy, using it to mutate Yuuzhan Vong coral seeds into fatal, painful sores on sentients. This ability allowed Maladi to sabotage the Ossus Project, which started the Sith-Imperial War, bolstering her contributions to the New Sith Order.

Behind the scenes


Darth Maladi was first mentioned in the preview for Star Wars: Legacy, Star Wars Legacy 0, and later appeared in the first issue of Legacy. Maladi served as a supporting character in the issue, and did not appear for the rest of the story arc, Broken. Maladi's character was greatly expanded on in the next two story arcs of Legacy, Allies and Trust Issues. A few issues later, Maladi appeared in Ready to Die, trying to orchestrate Fel's death, though she failed. Maladi is featured in the next story arc, Claws of the Dragon, at first torturing Cade Skywalker, and later doubting Krayt's obsession of Skywalker with Darth Nihl.

Artist Jan Duursema redesigned Darth Maladi after deciding that her initial illustration was too "sexy," and thus too much like Darth Talon. The redesigned Darth Maladi was meant to look more tightly wound. In an online interview on TheForce.net, Duursema jokingly agreed that Maladi was supposed to be a bit "emo." Another thing to note is Maladi's different skin color and fur quantities. It was established in The Essential Guide to Alien Species that female Devaronians had large fur quantities that had a white pigmentation, while Maladi has red skin and no fur. Jan Duursema resolved this continuity issue by statin that she thought that Maladi looked differen because she did not want all Devaronians to look the same.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 8: Allies
 * Star Wars Legacy 9: Trust Issues, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 13: Ready to Die
 * Star Wars Legacy 15: Claws of the Dragon, Part 2
 * Star Wars Legacy 17: Claws of the Dragon, Part 4
 * Star Wars Legacy 19: Claws of the Dragon, Part 6
 * Star Wars Legacy 23: Loyalties, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 27: Into the Core