Darth Vectivus

"He was a hardheaded business man with a keenly balanced sense of profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness."

- Lumiya

Darth Vectivus was a male Human who was a shrewd but fair businessman. The man who would become Vectivus, Dark Lord of the Sith, took over a prosperous mining colony near the planet Bimmiel. In the mine, as a latent Force-sensitive, he started feeling dark side influences inside it and began studying them, learning all he could from the mine before the dark energies affected his crews as well as ruining the ore, forcing him to shut the mine down. Even as a darksider and Sith Lord, taking his Sith name, his self discipline and preexisting business ethics allowed him to remain fair and balanced, without succumbing to the lure of power. Eventually, he returned to the mine and lived out a happy life with his family and friends.

As of 40 ABY, his spirit, retaining his powers, had lingered in the mine, and met a Jedi named Nelani Dinn, as a Force Phantom raised by Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya. Vectivus sent a swarm of hundreds of mynock-like creatures to greet the Jedi. After she cut down a few, Vectivus showed himself and informed her that for every creature she killed, an organism somewhere died as well. She did not believe him but he explained that all of them were Force Phantoms conjured by him and that the only way to destroy them without killing their host was to kill their master, Vectivus. She refused as she did not want to kill the innocent that Vectivus was connected to either. He changed his appearance to that of former Galactic Emperor Palpatine but she still refused to kill him. Calling her weak and not brave enough to make necessary sacrifices, he illuminated the way for her to leave. She cursed him as she turned to depart and soon the sounds of the creatures stopped.

Life
"The director of that time hushed up the reports, closed down that mine-the rest of the operation in these asteroids was unaffected-and kept things tightly under wraps. He, too, was a Force-sensitive and had been experiencing things, experimenting, acquiring and testing new powers. When this asteroid belt eventually became less profitable as a mining operation, he closed it down, carefully mismanaged things so that the habitat would be left here and forgotten . . . and then, leaving it behind, he went out into the galaxy, finding the Sith, apprenticing himself, eventually becoming the Sith Master Darth Vectivus."

- Lumiya describing Vectivus's life.

During his early years, the man who would become known as Darth Vectivus lived a normal life until he reached adulthood. He had friends and family who cared about him, and even taught him skills to help him in his life which led to him becoming the administrator of an asteroid mining facility in the MZX32905 system. The inherent dark side energies of that asteroid had been enhanced by a species of dark-side wielding mynock-like creatures. He came into his power as a latent Force-sensitive at this time; he felt the energy within the asteroid and began to study it. He performed various experiments and discovered new powers in the process. After the dark side energies slowly lead to his mining crews going insane, force-sensitives among the crews manifesting odd abilities, and strange site through the mines. In addition, the grade of the ore began to decline and as a result, the man decided to quietly close down the mine.

Ensuring that the mine would be quietly forgotten about, while other operations in the asteroid field continued; after learning all there was to learn from the place, the man took the name Darth Vectivus, departed, and began to quietly gather information of Sith lore through peaceful means. He found the Sith and apprenciced himselfone, to continue his training in the ways of the Force. His previously established code of ethics prevented him from being as stereotypically violent or ambitious a person as other practitioners of the dark side. Years later, Vectivus returned to the asteroid, a full-fledged Sith Lord. He built a mansion there, at the heart of the dark side energy, where he lived out the rest of his days surrounded by friends and family.

Legacy
"You mock, which is fine, but you mock out of ignorance, which is not. You don't know anything about Darth Vectivus."

- Lumiya to Jacen Solo

Meeting Nelani Dinn
Millennia later, the aspiring Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya moved into the remains of the mine above Vectivus's mansion. She used it as a sanctuary, where she studied Vectivus, whose spirit she had met in the asteroid; the history of the Sith, and the Force. She learned his personal history and Vectivus's techniques, mastering the projection of his phantoms to the point that she could send them across the galaxy and use them for communication.

In 40 ABY, Lumiya, under the name Shira Brie, took Jedi Knight Jacen Solo into Vectivus's former home to persuade him to join the dark side. Nelani Dinn and Ben Skywalker, Jedi that had accompanied Solo, were separated from him by Lumiya. Nelani and Ben were attacked by a large group of the mynock-like creatures and the two fought for their lives against them. After a while, they were also seperated from each other and the mynocks suddenly stopped accosting them. A dark figure appeared to Nelani and it complemented her fending off the creatures. It introcuceed itself as Darth Vectivus, telling her that he was a ghost but also that he suspected that he had no actual presence at all. Dinn refuted this as she could feel him as a large presence of the dark side, though he informed her that the feeling did not stem from him but rather the organism he was connected to. He informed her that he was actually a Force phantom, like all the "mynocks", a sentient or controlled manifestation of the dark side that required a host soul to operate. If the phantom or the organism were killed, the other would also die. He informed her that for every "mynock" she killed, a person or animal somewhere in the universe died with it. He used an example of a baby bantha dying in front of its helpless mother due to Nelani's strike and being helpless to stop it. Dinn did not believe him, though he assured her it was true, and asked him how she could get rid of him and the creatures. He told her that the only way to do it was to kill him; if she did so, the "mynocks" would disappear, not killing those who were attached, and she would be able to find both Ben and Jacen again. However, as he was a phantom, the person he was attached to would die as well and that was unacceptable to her. He tried to goad her into the action but Dinn refused to take the life of the innocent.

Vectivus did not give in, he continued trying to push her towards the act despite her continuing refusal, so he changed his form to that of former Galactic Emperor Palpatine and spoke in his voice, telling her to strike him down. She still refused to kill him so he reverted to his original form and accused her of not being strong enough to save the lives of people, unable to sacrifice one for the greater good. Dinn told him that she would gladly give her own life for a cause like that and Vectivus rebuffed it by saying that in that case she wouldn't have to face the loved ones of the sacrificed. He illuminated the way she needed to follow to rejoin her group after allowing them to make their own decisions and telling her that he did not want her to die unnecessarily but if she meddled in their affairs at her current strength, she would. Dinn told him to "Go to hell" and he disappeared along with the chittering of the "mynocks" above. Dinn left the chamber filled with worry for her friends' safety.

Destruction of the asteroid
Darth Vectivus's holocron containing his words on business ethic and a detailed explaination of the the use of his Force Phantom techniques later came into the possession of the One Sith, a growing new order of Sith following the Rule of One, who gave it to Alema Rar, a Twi'lek Dark Jedi, when she visited their base. The One Sith did not approve of Lumiya's plan to turn Jacen Solo to the dark side so they ordered Alema to deliver the holocron to Solo, newly christened Darth Caedus. Later it was revealed that the One Sith Order had determined Vectivus to be a fraud, despite possessing some unique dark side powers. The One Sith Order arrived at the asteroid, intent on destroying it and the dark side powers it contained so that it would not fall into the hands of the Jedi and Galactic Alliance forces. While the One Sith was attacking the asteroid, the Alema Rar Task Force, a squad led by Jagged Fel with the sole purpose of eliminating Rar, infiltrated the mine in an attempt to killed the Twi'lek, who was using it as a hideout. After chasing her through the mines, Jagged Fel used a pair of crushgaunts to break Rar's neck, killing her. The One Sith also succeeded in their mission, detonating fission bombs on the mine, obliterating the asteroid. Though the Task Force was able to escape, Rar's body and the holocron were destroyed as well, before she could deliver it to Caedus and inform him of the new, growing Sith power in the galaxy.

Personality and traits
"He developed a strong ethical code before he ever felt any pull from the dark side. He was an adult, a hardheaded businessman with a keenly balanced sense of both profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness."

- Lumiya

The Human male who would become Darth Vectivus was a savvy businessman with a strict code of morals and ethics to keep himself in line. He learned about business and other skills, such as negotiations, from his family and friends. Due to his curiosity of the peculiar feelings his mine was giving him, he realized that he was a latent Force-sensitive. After taking the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and leaving the mine, Vectivus sought out Sith lore and other information about the Force. That code of ethics carried over into his time as a Dark Lord, causing him to never capture a system or eliminate populations which was the stereotype for Sith. However, Vectivus was still a ruthless individual, partly connected to his background as a businessman, willing to do whatever it took to succeed, and he encouraged others to do so as well. After he grew old, he created a mansion inside the mine and moved back there with his friends and family. He loved his family and was a generally happy person during this time, until he died of old age some time later.

Powers and abilities
"Every phantom you see here, every one you encounter, is connected to something that is distinctly real, distinctly alive-though possibly far, far away. Every time you struck a mynock, a living being somewhere suffered the pain and injury you inflicted."

- Darth Vectivus

Little is known about the powers that Vectivus obtained during his journey through the galaxy. It is only known that he could conjure Force Phantoms at will, without the restricting and draining backlash that limited some, like Alema Rar, to only one or two Force Phantoms at a time. Instead, Vectivus was able to summon hundreds of Phantoms at the same time. After his death, he retained his powers as a Force ghost, at least to create Phantoms; he also had the ability to change his shape at will and showed the ability to levitate above the ground.

Behind the scenes
Darth Vectivus was created by Aaron Allston for the first novel of the Legacy of the Force series. He appeared as a spirit to Nelani Dinn and served as a platform for Lumiya to convince Jacen Solo to become Darth Caedus by showing him that not all Sith were neccisarily evil. He was also mentioned many times later in the series and was pictured, though his face was obscured, in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

According to Leland Chee's blog Darth Vectivus's name comes from the word "invective", which has a number of definitions, including vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach; a railing accusation; vituperation, an insulting or abusive word or expression, vituperative; denunciatory, or censoriously abusive.

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia states that Vectivus told Jacen Solo that he was akin to a Force spirit. This is obviously an error because Jacen never met Vectivus throughout Legacy of the Force or at any other time in Star Wars canon.

Appearances

 * Betrayal
 * Exile
 * Inferno
 * Fury

Notes and references
Darth Vectivus Darth Vectivus