Brakiss

"You each have tools inside to master yourself, and to master the Force. And to draw on the strength of the Force, you must learn to draw on what is strongest in you: strong emotions, deep desires, fear, aggression, hate, anger."

- Brakiss

Brakiss was a fallen Human Jedi trainee. He was brainwashed by Imperials, and then sent to infiltrate Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum. He later formed the Shadow Academy for the Second Imperium and died when the battlestation that housed the academy self-destructed during a battle with the New Jedi Order.

Early life
Brakiss was born on Msst, to his mother. As a baby, he was discovered by agents of the Empire to be Force-sensitive. After passing enough tests to save his life, he was taken from his family and brainwashed into serving the Inquisitorius.

Jedi Praxeum
"That's right. Master Skywalker figured out who you were, but when he tried to turn you to the light side&mdash;to save you&mdash;you couldn't face the ugliness inside yourself.''" "''Ah, so that's how he tells it? Master Skywalker and I did not agree on the...particulars of training in the Force."

- Jaina Solo and Brakiss

Ordered by the Inquisitorius to infiltrate the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, Brakiss became one of the first trainees of Luke Skywalker and aided in the defeat of Exar Kun. Skywalker, who knew the reason why Brakiss was there through his mastery of the Force, tried to turn him to the light numerous times. Since Brakiss showed great talent as a Jedi student, Skywalker felt that he could be changed and thus did not expel him as he had with many previous Imperial infiltrators.

After three years at the Praxeum, Brakiss underwent a mental meditation to face the darkness in his own soul. As part of the procedure, Brakiss would not be allowed to look into the rivers of the Force but was forced to concentrate on his own heart. Due to his deep Imperial indoctrination and his initiation in the dark side of the Force by the Inquisitorius, Brakiss was unwilling to see the flaws of his Imperial masters and refused any gestures to the contrary by the Jedi.

However, he only saw the darkest parts of himself and fled, psychologically scarred by the incident. Brakiss returned to Msst and reported in to his supervisors, but only under the condition that he live in peace from then on. Deeming Brakiss of little use now that his mind was not whole, they agreed. Brakiss then left Msst again to find his own path. He then made his way to the droid foundries of Telti, to heal and recuperate.

The Almanian Uprising
"Your problem is that you don't understand the power of hate."

- Kueller to Brakiss



After a period of time, Brakiss came under the influence of another former Academy pupil named Kueller&mdash;formerly known as Dolph. Dolph had abandoned his Jedi training to lead a popular revolt against the despotic Je'har junta on his remote homeworld of Almania on the fringes of Wild Space. He rose to prominence among the resistance and assumed the persona Kueller; hiding his identity under a Hendanyn death mask. Turning to the dark side, Kueller overthrew the Je'har in a violent coup and assumed control of the planet; ruling as an autocratic dictator.

Due to Kueller's manipulations, Brakiss gained employment as the sole sentient overseer on the the droid foundry moon of Telti. The entire moon was a vast sprawling series of droid factories whose domes and landing strips were connected by several tunnels. Still coming to terms with his ordeal at the Jedi Academy, Brakiss found some peace administrating the day-to-day operations of the Telti droid factories.

As the de-facto authority on Telti, Brakiss commanded a private army of 500 "Red Terror" gladiator droids who developed a reputation as hardened bullies among the other droids. While Telti was a renowned manufacturer for the oligipoly of droid-designing firms and a supplier for countless consumers across the galaxy, the plant's operations were secretly tampered by Kueller who planned to take on the Jedi and the New Republic. The droids were manufactured and fitted with the explosives on Telti, under the guidance of Brakiss and smuggled into Coruscant by a smuggler called Jaril.

In 17 ABY, several of these rigged droids were used to detonate an explosion in the crowded New Republic Senate Hall on Coruscant. Twenty-five senators and staff were killed while a hundred more were wounded during the bomb attack including the Chief of State Leia Organa Solo. The explosion also caused shock waves that caused surrounding buildings, like the Crystal Jewel Casino, to shake. More of these rigged droids were used to exterminate the populations of Alamania's moons Pydyr amd Auyemesh.

By blowing up the Senate Hall during the opening session, Kueller planned to subvert and undermine the New Republic by sending it into a political crisis. Many pro-New Republic senators had been killed while most of the former Imperial senators were unharmed and gained proportionally greater power, causing the development of a powerful new faction in the senate under the de facto leadership of Meido. They obtained circumstantial evidence to implicate Han Solo with causing the explosion and attempted to use this to force a vote of no confidence and get Chief of State Solo out of office.

Leia was convinced that the former Imperials had something to do with the attack, although Han believed that it had something to do with Jaril, who at the time of the explosion had been trying to warn him about something. Han and Chewbacca decided to travel to the Smuggler's Run to investigate this theory further. Brakiss' former instructor Skywalker also came to the chamber following the attack and was able to feel through the Force that Brakiss was in some way connected to it.

Upon arriving on Telti onboard his X-wing starfighter, Skywalker was met by the protocol droid C-9PO who guided him through the vast assembly areas. Upon arriving at the main assembly area, he was confronted by a lightsaber-wielding Brakiss who warned him of the threat of Kueller. Undaunted, Skywalker ignored his former student's warning and traveled on his X-wing to Almania. However, his X-wing was sabotaged and Skywalker was captured by a gloating Kueller who attempted to use him as a bargaining chip with the Republic.

Later, the famed droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2's investigations into the Coruscant bombings prompted a trip to Telti. R2-D2 had found enough evidence that the rigged droids were manufactured on Telti. Accompanied by the Human mechanic Cole Fardreamer, they arrived at Telti. While Fardreamer explained to Brakiss about the Senate Hall Bombings, the two droids searched for clues in the sprawling complex. Upon learning of their arrival, Brakiss had Cole imprisoned and tortured by the EV supervisor droid EV-9D9.2.

Meanwhile, C-3PO and R2-D2 fared no better. Flagged as intruders by Brakiss' Red Terror droid henchmen, the former was detained while the latter was dumped into a rubbish heap. Before the thuggish droids could disintegrate C-3PO into scrap metal, they were attacked and overpowered by an army of astromech droids that R2-D2 had met in the rubbish heap. Earlier, Artoo had been able to persuade these droid outcasts to assist him and to settle scores with their Red Terror oppressors.

The droids then freed Fardreamer and managed to break into Brakiss' control room. Discovering Brakiss and his master Kueller's intentions, R2-D2 hacked into the computer terminal and disabled Kueller's master control signal which triggered the remote detonators; ending Kueller's plot to detonate all Telti-built droids in the galaxy. Meanwhile on Almania, Kueller met his end at the hands of Leia Organa Solo during the Battle of Almania. With his master dead and their plans in ruins, the fallen Jedi fled the moon on a shuttle.

The Second Imperium
"We have already found a powerful new leader, a great one but we also need our own group of Dark Jedi Knights, Imperial Jedi, who will cement our factions together and give us will to defeat the wicked and unlawful government of the New Republic and bring about the Second Imperium."

- Brakiss

After that plan failed, Brakiss went to the Deep Core and reestablished his Imperial warlord contacts, becoming a neutral broker between the replacement warlords. In 19 ABY, peace was established between the Imperial Remnant in the Outer Rim Territories and the New Republic during the Pellaeon–Gavrisom Treaty. The treaty was signed by Admiral and de-facto Imperial leader Gilad Pellaeon and his Republic counterpart Chief of State Ponc Gavrisom and ended two decades of civil war.

While welcomed by many war-weary citizens in the New Republic and the Empire, some officers in the Imperial Remnant and "replacement warlords" in the Deep Core including Brakiss rejected these accords as a "sham" and decided to take matters into their own hands; splitting off from the official Imperial Remnant. This insurgent movement was led by four Imperial Royal Guards who had formerly been Stormtroopers promoted by Admiral Daala to guardsman status.



These Royal Guards had founded the insurgent Second Imperium which sought to restore the Galactic Empire to its former glory. Using holograms of Palpatine, stretching from his earliest days as the Senator of Naboo to Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic to Emperor of the Empire, they impersonated him, creating a charismatic leadership figure to rally the Remnant dissenters. Many Second Imperium leaders especially Brakiss were deceived and won over by this spectacle.

Having accepted the dark side, Brakiss became a Dark Jedi and was tasked with creating a new cadre of Imperial Dark Jedi Knights to counter those of Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum. He used funds appropriated by the Imperium to construct a cloaked space station called the Shadow Academy to serve as a mobile academy for his Dark Jedi. It was equipped with training facilities not only for dark Jedi, but also for stormtroopers and TIE pilots.

It was Brakiss's hopes that these Dark Jedi would help maintain order across the faltering remnants of the Empire. He recruited heavily from the Nightsisters of Dathomir, forming a leadership cadre consisting of a number of the witches such as Tamith Kai, Vonnda Ra, and Garowyn. Initial recruitment began on the planet Dathomir, with prospective students shipped off to the Shadow Academy to begin indoctrination and training. Recruiting candidates was a simple matter after he had helped revive the Nightsisters on the planet Dathomir under the aegis of the Great Canyon Clan. However, by 22 ABY, the flow of recruits from Dathomir started to dry up. Additionally, Brakiss's sadistic methods of rooting out weak students in his academy claimed the lives of at least six students.

That year, the Second Imperium was joined by the TIE pilot Qorl, who had been eking out a life on the jungle moon of Yavin 4 since the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY. Qorl was placed in charged of the growing starfighter corps of the Second Imperium. He also revealed information on Skywalker's Academy gleaned from the Solo twins Jacen and Jaina when he forced them to repair his damaged TIE Fighter before escaping into hyperspace.

Though he had already known of the existence of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, the fact that Skywalker was training a new, powerful generation of Jedi Knights may have been news to Brakiss. Believing that their young minds would be easier to sway than those of adults, Brakiss decided that kidnapping students from the Jedi Praxeum would help his new order of Dark Jedi to grow. With this information, a daring plan was launched to kidnap some of these students. It was hoped they would prove easy to corrupt, and their disappearance would strike fear into the New Jedi Order.

Facing the Jedi
"Nonsense. Master Skywalker is holding you back unnecessarily. You already know how to use one of these. Go ahead. Here at the Shadow Academy we feel that lightsaber skills are among the first talents a Jedi should develop, because strong, able warriors are always needed. If a Jedi Knight is not ready to fight for a cause, then what good is he?"

- Brakiss



In 23 ABY, his agents led by Tamith Kai raided the GemDiver Station in the gas giant Yavin and kidnapped Jedi trainees Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo and Lowbacca. Brakiss’s first targets were the Solo twins due to their enormous potential as potent Force-users and their significant socio-political status as the children of the New Republic Chief of State Leia Organa Solo&mdash;leader of the Imperium’s primary enemy. Just prior to the start of the raid, the Solos and their Wookiee companion Lowbacca had embarked upon a field trip to Lando Calrissian's GemDiver Station. It is not known how the Shadow Academy discovered that the three Jedi trainees would be on the space station, which orbited the gas giant Yavin.

A force of four Skipray blastboats and one modified assault shuttle, was assembled under the command of his Nightsister second-in-command Tamith Kai. Having disabled the defensive satellites, a boarding part of Stormtroopers boarded the station and quickly overpowered Calrissian's guards. During a standoff in the shipping chamber, the Solo twins and Lowbacca were stunned and kidnapped; achieving the mission's primary goal. Despite its success, four stormtroopers were killed.

The three Jedi trainees, as well as Lowbacca's droid Em Teedee were kidnapped and taken to the Shadow Academy where Brakiss and Tamith Kai attempted to indoctrinate them into turning to the dark side of the Force. In the immediate aftermath of the raid on GemDiver Station, Brakiss was pleased with the results. Due to the nature of their first encounter, both the Solo twins and Lowbacca displayed their contempt and disagreement. As an introduction to his course, he had all three of them incarcerated in solitary cubicles to compel them to meditate and develop their dark side skills.

In an attempt to indoctrinate his captives, Brakiss had them attend one of his lectures along with other more willing Dark Jedi students. During his lecture, he began by emphasizing the concepts of wielding the dark side of the Force. Unfortunately, the three Jedi trainees especially Jaina were resistant to his teachings due to their strong grounding in the concepts of the light side at Skywalker's academy. When Jaina defied him openly, Brakiss retaliated by unleashing a torrent of Force lightning on her; knocking her unconscious.

An enraged Lowbacca flew into a fit of rage and attacked several of the other students and Stormtroopers. After subduing them following a heated commotion, Brakiss ordered his Stormtroopers to return the three Jedi trainees their quarters and keep them separated. However, Brakiss also noted that Lowbacca with his short temper had a great potential for the dark side if "properly instructed".

Splitting the training of the new recruits between each other, Brakiss took charge of Jacen and Jaina while Tamith Kai focused her efforts on Lowbacca. Brakiss believed that the best way to indoctrinate the twins would be to give them what they want. Knowing that one of Jacen's desires was to have his own lightsaber, Brakiss gave him one and allowed him to practice with it, dueling the Shadow Academy's holo-remotes.

Jaina was made to do the same thing but refused to cooperate, insisting that she wants to see her brother again. Brakiss informed her that she may see her brother after one more dueling session. During this session, Jacen was brought into the training room. However, both of them were disguised as Darth Vader by the training room's holoprojectors. Qorl, the TIE/LN starfighter pilot who sparked the kidnapping attempt by relating his encounter with the Solo twins to Brakiss after returning to "his Empire" questioned the wisdom of making the twins duel each other. Brakiss, initially unreceptive to the criticism, decided that Qorl's concerns had validity and cancelled the holoprojector to be turned off. The twins, both drawing upon their anger toward Brakiss and Tamith Kai to bolster their strength were shocked to discover that they had fought each other.

Tamith Kai, however, made a bit more headway with Lowbacca, due to his somewhat short-tempered nature. Another aggravating factor was the reprogramming of Em Teedee to be more loyal to the Empire. Though Em Teedee had been annoying in the first place, he was even more so when he said things like "The Empire is your friend." However, Lowbacca managed to keep Tamith Kai's sadistic training methods from turning him. Figuring that Skywalker would be gone looking for his missing Jedi trainees, he planned more raids on the Jedi Praxeum. However, he didn't know how right he was.

Unfortunately for Brakiss, Calrissian and other survivors onboard the GemDiver Station alerted the Jedi Order and the New Republic government of the kidnapping. The Republic mobilized its scouts to discover their whereabouts while Brakiss' former teacher Skywalker and the Hapan student Princess Tenel Ka visited the GemDiver. During their investigations, they discovered that the kidnappers had employed industrial-grade Corusca gems. Due to the nature of the Corusca gem industry, they also discovered that the source of the Corusca gems was a broker on Borgo Prime.

Calrissian supplied an old blockade runner named Off Chance so that they could travel incognito to Borgo Prime in search of the broker. There, they learned from the broker that his last customer had been a party of Dathomiri Nightsisters led by Tamith Kai. Passing themselves off as possible recruits for these new Nightsisters, Skywalker and Tenel Ka were sent to the Shadow Academy where the missing Jedi trainees were being held. When they arrived they found Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca were in the process of escaping the Shadow Academy.

After a confrontation with Brakiss and Tamith Kai, the Jedi stole a shuttle and made it back to Yavin 4. After the escape, Brakiss had to move the Shadow Academy immediately so that New Republic scouts that had been dispatched to find the missing trainees would not find it. He also scuttled his plans to kidnap more trainees from the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin. Instead, he would focus on recruiting disadvantaged youths to his cause.

Changing Tactics
Realizing that capturing high-profile people and any existing Jedi trainees may bring unwanted attention, Brakiss's agents went on a recruitment drive in the dangerous lower levels of Coruscant, and were told to bring back people no one would miss. Among their recruits was Zekk &mdash; a friend of the Solo twins. Zekk, believing that no one cared for him, was fully brainwashed and joined the Shadow Academy. Zekk eventually killed Tamith Kai's apprentice Vilas in a duel to prove himself and became Brakiss's protégé and eventually, the Shadow Academy's Darkest Knight.

Death
With the sudden arrival of the back-from-the-dead Emperor Palpatine, Brakiss then gathered his forces, including a fleet of captured Star Destroyers and groups of TIE Fighters to hold off any New Republic or Imperial Remnant forces and attacked the Jedi Academy. Tamith Kai led stormtrooper forces onto Yavin IV's surface and Zekk led teams of Shadow Academy students to engage the Jedi. During the battle he arranged a meeting with Skywalker where the two of them would come alone. Skywalker once again tried to turn him back to the light, but Brakiss engaged him in a lightsaber duel, and was eventually disarmed. He refused to listen to Skywalker's reasoning, and returned to the Shadow Academy. When he arrived, he demanded to see the Emperor, but he discovered "the Great Leader of the Second Imperium" was really nothing more than four Royal Guards. Furious, he killed three of them, but the fourth escaped and activated the Academy's self-destruct system. Brakiss was killed in the ensuing explosion and the fourth guard escaped. His companion, Tamith Kai, was also killed during the battle and his remaining forces were either scattered or destroyed by the New Republic reinforcements that had arrived and engaged his fleet, effectively ending the Second Imperium.

Powers and Abilities
Brakiss was a moderately strong force-user, and was capable of higher Sith arts, such as Force Lightning. As a Dark Jedi, Brakiss was very attuned to the Dark Side by way of being very controlled and polite, and using his emotions for power, rather than his emotions using him as with other lesser Dark Side users (such as Anakin Skywalker before his wounding on Mustafar.) Despite being very strong, he was not as powerful as a full Dark Lord like Vader or Sidious, as evidenced when he failed to defeat Luke Skywalker in several confrontations, despite being trained by him. However, he could still provide an impressive show of Dark Side power, and was able to use Force Lightning to great effect. Little is known about his lightsaber skill, but he presumably used Form V like his teacher.

Appearances



 * I, Jedi
 * The New Rebellion
 * Young Jedi Knights: Heirs of the Force
 * Young Jedi Knights: Shadow Academy
 * Young Jedi Knights: The Lost Ones
 * Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers
 * Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege
 * Young Jedi Knights: Shards of Alderaan
 * Young Jedi Knights: Diversity Alliance
 * Young Jedi Knights: Delusions of Grandeur
 * Young Jedi Knights: The Emperor's Plague
 * Young Jedi Knights: Crisis at Crystal Reef
 * Star by Star