N-K Necrosis

"Am I more in fact than just a droid? Am I alive, and perhaps&hellip;even the reincarnation of Grievous?"

- Necrosis's thoughts

N-K Necrosis was a highly advanced combat droid that was created from the cyborg body of General Grievous during the Galactic Civil War. Doctor Nycolai Kinesworthy, a cybernetic scientist, was hired by the Galactic Empire to create a highly advanced combat droid. Dubbing the project "N-K," which was an acronym derived from his own name, Kinesworthy established a shop in the Myyydril Caverns on the planet of Kashyyyk to begin work on the droid. Kinesworthy eventually hired the unstable scientist Treun Lorn to help move the project beyond its theoretical stage. After Lorn hired the assassin droid IG-72 to retrieve a pair of outdated IG-100 MagnaGuards to serve as N-K's bodyguards, the Dark Side prophetess Merili led the two scientists to one of Emperor Palpatine's secret storehouses on Utapau, where she provided them with mechanical body of General Grievous.

After placing an advanced droid brain in the mechanical body, Kinesworthy dubbed the completed project "N-K Necrosis," and renamed the aging MagnaGuards to "NK-3." The NK-3s, taught Necrosis how to fight with a lightsaber similarly to how Grievous had taught his MagnaGuards nearly a decade prior. Necrosis' weapon of choice was a double-bladed lightsaber, which contained the Bane's Heart crystal. At some point around the Battle of Yavin, Lorn stole Necrosis and his NK-3 bodyguards to use them for his own purposes. In 1.5 ABY, a group of spacers investigated the lower regions of the Myyydril Caverns at the behest of Dr. Kinesworthy. During their investigations, the group inadvertently aided Lorn in activating Necrosis, and defeated both it and its NK-3 bodyguards before taking whatever they deemed valuable.

Creation
By the time of the Galactic Civil War, Doctor Nycolai Kinesworthy, a highly regarded cybernetic scientist, was employed by the Galactic Empire to construct an advanced combat droid. Kinesworthy's knowledge of death and it's aspects helped him to create an advanced droid brain. With that complete, the doctor dubbed his project "N-K," a reference to his own name. The scientist recruited a well-known, but unstable, scientist named Treun Lorn, who helped Kinesworthy move the project beyond its theoretical stage. Both scientists transferred the project to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. There, the project was presented to the controller of Kashyyyk, the dark side user Merili, who allowed Kinesworthy to host the project within the Myyydril Caverns on Kashyyyk.

After Lorn hired assassin droid, IG-72, to round up two outdated IG-100 MagnaGuards, Merili took both Kinesworthy and Lorn to the planet of Utapau. At one of Emperor Palpatine's secret storage warehouses on Utapau, the dark side prophet gave the two scientists the droid body of Grievous, the Confederate cyborg General that was killed at the end of the Clone Wars. The droid body would host Kinesworthy's experimental droid brain and be reanimated into the advanced combat droid, N-K Necrosis. The two MagnaGuards&mdash;renamed to "NK-3"&mdash;taught the reanimated Grievous how to fight with a lightsaber. The NK-3 droids utilized the same fighting techniques that Grievous taught the MangaGuards nearly two decades eariler.

Necrosis carried a variety of weapons, as well as the deed to Grievous' starfighter, Soulless One. Necrosis chose the double-bladed lightsaber, as his primary weapon of choice. The lightsaber also contained the crystal Bane's Heart, a crystal that once belonged to Darth Zannah. He was also presented with the weapon which had, in fact, destroyed Grievous: a modified BlasTech DT-57 blaster, which had been dubbed the "Grievance Striker." The droid was known to carry a Utapaun Nightblade.

Death
At some point around the Battle of Yavin, Lorn kidnapped and stored Necrosis and his bodyguards deep within the Myydril Caverns. Taking the completed project away from Kinesworthy, Necrosis was protected by Lorn in a cave that would host the droid. However, in 1.5 ABY, a group of spacers investigated the Myyydril Caverns during the height of the Galactic Civil War at the behest of Kinesworty. During their investigation, the spacers found the Necrosis cave, which was protected by a watchful B1 battle droid. The droid gave the spacers a quest to find a special crystal in the Caverns, which would spring Necrosis to life. After retrieving the crystal, the battle droid gave the spacers access to the Necrosis cave. Inside, the spacers talked to Lorn, who demanded the spacers to hand over his crystal. However, after the spacers complied, Necrosis and his two NK-3 bodyguards appeared and engaged the group in a fierce battle. The spacers, though defeated and destroyed both Necrosis and his NK-3 guards, and salvaged the remains of the corpses. The spacers took anything that was deemed valuable, which included the crystal Bane's Heart, other weaponry, the deed to Soulless One, and parts of his droid body.

The looted parts of his droid body, which were considered valuable components, were sold on the Invisible Market. It was rumored that Necrosis' armorplast mask had been bought by a high-ranking Imperial Admiral who displayed it as a Kaleesh work of art.

Characteristics
Kinesworthy's droid brain, which was integrated into Necrosis' droid head, gave Necrosis the ability to think. During his life within the Myyydril caverns, Necrosis pondered if he was truly alive or was a reanimated being of the man who once lived in the droid body: Grievous.

Despite being a battle droid, N-K Necrosis was highly advanced in melee combat. Necrosis used the same lightsaber techniques that Grievous once taught his MagnaGuard bodyguards. Necrosis, however, was more powerful than his NK-3 droids. The droid's defense and devastating punishing blows were greatly increased, due to the fact he was using a double-bladed lightsaber. Unlike other lightsaber crystals, Necrosis' Bane's Heart was alchemically-treated, thus making the overall weapon more powerful than other lightsaber crystals. Because Necrosis and his NK-3 guards favored melee combat over ranged, their weapon ranged was greatly decreased if they were challenged by spacers who used ranged weapons.

Behind the scenes
N-K Necrosis first appeared in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars Galaxies. In April 2005, a month before the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Sony Online Entertainment, the creator of Star Wars Galaxies, released the game's second expansion titled "Rage of the Wookiees". The expansion debuted the planet of Kashyyyk into the game, and the playable quest, N-K Necrosis. Like all other quests in the game, N-K Necrosis dropped rare weapons, which included the lightsaber crystal Bane's Heart. In addition to the weapons that are only obtainable if the player kills the droid, N-K drops a deed to Grievous' starfighter and a cybernetic arm.

Star Wars author, Abel G. Peña, mentioned the character N-K Necrosis in two stories that described Grievous' life. The story, The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War, mentions the origins of N-K, and how he acquired the droid body of Grievous.

Notes and references
N-K Necrosis