Thought bomb

"I ask that you join me in one last task: the creation of a weapon so powerful that when it is detonated, the victors shall become the vanquished and be swept from the pages of history."

- Kaan

A thought bomb was an ancient ritual that, through the focused willpower of many unified Sith Lords, unleashed the full volatility of the dark side of the Force. When detonated, a thought bomb decimated the entirety&mdash;corporeal and beyond&mdash;of every Force-sensitive being caught within its blast radius, and absorbed the fragments of their souls into a swirling vortex of perpetual torment that resolved into an orb of silver iridescence. Knowledge of such volatile power was hidden for milennia in the Temple of the Ancients on the planet Lehon within the Sith holocron of the long-dead Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Revan. The secrets of its creation were discovered by the Sith'ari Darth Bane in 1,000 BBY, who passed the knowledge on to Lord Kaan, leader of the Brotherhood of Darkness. In a desperate attempt to end the war in which they were engaged with the Jedi, the Dark Lords of Kaan's Sith Brotherhood created and detonated a thought bomb which decimated nearly all sentient Force-sensitive life on the planet Ruusan.

Creation
"We are one. We are the dark side. The dark side is us. Feel the power of the dark side. Surrender to it. Surrender to the unified whole. Let us become one."

- The opening incantation for the thought bomb, led by Lord Kaan

The creation of a thought bomb required the collective focus of many participating Sith Lords, all considerably strong in the dark side of the Force. Arranged in a circular formation and joined by hands, those gathered began to chant an incantation that, although simple, rapidly drew the Force into the center of the ring. As the expanding tide of the dark side whirlpooled within the circle, so too did the minds of the united Sith coalesce into a single consciousness with which to shape the harnessed energy. As the ritual progressed, the thoughts, cognizance, even identities of the participants were consumed by the vortex until they were bereft of all sense of individuality, transformed into a single entity within the Force. Eschewing the need for any further physical contact, the celebrants raised their hands toward the epicenter and gave corporeal form to that which had moments before been immaterial: the recited incantation that bound their collective will with the power of the dark side. So concentrated was the summoned power that the fabric of reality itself was distorted within the ring; the breath of those gathered became visible as the ambient temperature dropped significantly; frost formed on their extremities and the tapered protrusions of the surrounding area. All light, heat, and sound was drawn into the vacuum of the thought bomb, and tendrils of energy from a cloud of utter darkness formed over the master of the ceremony, who had since taken up position in the center of the circle.

Risks
"Kaan had some spell, some power, over his followers. They were enthralled to his will. When he led them down into the cave, they all followed him willingly. He had them convinced they could survive the thought bomb if they united their power&hellip;but he was wrong."

- Valenthyne Farfalla

Creators of a thought bomb subjected themselves and those nearby to a host of dangers, several of them potentially fatal. Those especially strong in the dark side were vaguely aware of their senses, tactile and otherwise, but most remained completely enthralled and unable to resist.

Applications
"They're going to unleash some kind of Sith weapon. Something called a thought bomb.''" "''Is Kaan mad?"

- Jedi Lords Valenthyne Farfalla and Hoth

The primary purpose of a thought bomb&mdash;while reserved as a last resort by the Sith&mdash;was to decimate the Jedi opposition.

History


The thought bomb's use dated back to the ancient Sith, and stories were told in the Jedi Temple about the destruction they caused. The bomb's secrets were forgotten and thought to be lost forever until Darth Bane discovered Darth Revan's Sith Holocron in the Temple of the Ancients on the planet Lehon. The holocron had been constructed by Darth Revan nearly three thousand years earlier, but the technique likely even predated Revan.

Knowledge of creating the thought bomb had been given by Darth Bane to Lord Kaan of the Brotherhood of Darkness as a 'gift', knowing that he would use it in an effort to destroy the Army of Light. Bane had acquired the knowledge of the destructive weapon from Darth Revan's holocron, which he had previously found on the planet Lehon (Rakata Prime). Kaan unleashed the last-known bomb against the Army of Light during the catastrophic Seventh Battle of Ruusan. It was Bane's plan all along for Kaan to use the thought bomb in order to purge The Brotherhood of Darkness of any Sith survivors, allowing Bane to rebuild the Sith Order under the Rule of Two in the shadows of secrecy. Formed through an ancient ritual requiring the combined will of many powerful Sith Lords, the thought bomb, when triggered, unleashed the pure destructive energy of the dark side. While the Sith Lords performed the ritual, the air around them grew cold, causing icicles to form on them. The heat and light around a certain perimeter of the weapon was almost nonexistent; consumed by the bomb.

The Thought Bomb was formed using a ritual performed by the collective willpower and command over the Force. Lord Kaan and his followers gathered into a circle and formed the weapon using a system of ritual chanting, the actual words involved in the chanting are currently unknown. Upon detonation, the Thought Bomb created a void in time and space, drawing all Force-Sensitive sentients within the blast radius into the center. Those that were not Force-Sensitive, such as the Republic soldier found outside the the cavern in which the Thought Bomb had been detonated, or Darovit, whose command of the Force was extremely limited, were unaffected by the destructive forces of the Thought Bomb. The unfortunate victims that were affected by the bomb however, were literally ripped out of their skins as the dark side energy sucked their souls into the remnants of the bomb; trapped in an eternal, tormenting horror--until Darth Bane tortured them further with the Force, crushing their minds and awareness and leaving them with minds comparable to animals.

Darth Bane, a young Force-sensitive girl named Rain, and her cousin Darovit were among the survivors of the dark side weapon. Other survivors included Jedi Lord Valenthyne Farfalla and the remaining Jedi of the Army of Light that fled with him. The Sith Lord Githany was killed by the blast while trying to flee the cave where all of the remaining Sith Lords detonated the weapon. Lord Kaan killed himself and the remaining Sith Lords as well as Lord Hoth and the ninety-nine Jedi who traveled into the cavern to stop Kaan. Bane sensed the wave of dark side energy pass over him, but he was distant enough to feel only the reverberations of the blast. Although, a few hours after the detonation of the thought bomb, Bane experienced severe headaches and hallucinations of Kaan and Qordis until he acquired his new power from Freedon Nadd's tomb on Dxun. It has also been discovered, that if one were to physically touch the thought bomb, one could hear the screams of the tormented spirits trapped within.

The Spirits of the victims of the thought bomb were eventually freed by Kyle Katarn though their presence continued to linger.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Bane of the Sith
 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi

Notes and references
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