Tomb of Freedon Nadd

"These smaller coffins must belong to Queen Amanoa and King Ommin, the dark-side rulers of Onderon! They are of no interest to me. That large one! That must be&hellip;''" "The Tomb of Freedon Nadd&mdash;my tomb!''"

- Exar Kun and Freedon Nadd's spirit

The Tomb of Freedon Nadd was a mausoleum that served as the final resting place for the physical remains of King Ommin and Queen Amanoa of Onderon, as well as their Sith ancestor, Dark Lord of the Sith Freedon Nadd. The tomb was originally buried beneath the royal palace of Onderon's capital city Iziz and only contained Freedon Nadd's sarcophagus, which over time had become potent reservoir of dark side energy. Following the final defeat of the Freedon Nadd's worshipers in 3,998 BBY, Jedi Master Arca Jeth provisioned the construction of a new tomb on the nearby jungle moon Dxun to house Nadd's remains in an attempt to rid the planet of the taint of the dark side. Alongside the Dark Lord's sarcophagus were those of Onderon's recently deceased rulers, Queen Amanoa and her husband King Ommin.

In 3,997 BBY, Freedon Nadd's tomb was visited by the Dark Jedi Exar Kun, who penetrated its nearly-indestructible Mandalorian iron exterior in search of forbidden Sith secrets. The mausoleum remained unvisited for nearly the next forty years. The tomb was an influential location in 3,951 BBY during the Dark Wars, where a number of Sith forces loyal to the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus were defeated by companions of the Jedi Knight known as the Exile. Three millenia later, Freedon Nadd's tomb was later found and explored by Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane, who discovered Nadd's holocron inside.

Onderon tomb
"My students and I tracked Amanoa to the deepest sublevels of her palace and discovered Freedon Nadd's tomb, which had become the focus of dark side energy and allowed his power to pass to his descendants from generation to generation."

- Arca Jeth

The tomb of the ancient Sith Lord Freedon Nadd was originally located in an underground cave, deep in the catacombs under Queen Amanoa's Royal Palace of Iziz, Onderon's capital city. The cave was cold and dark, and only accessible by tunnels that Galia confessed to having no knowledge of. It radiated with the power of Sith magic. The original tomb only consisted of the Dark Lord's massive sarcophagus, which in turn housed his biological remains. The sarcophagus was made of heavy stone, and also covered with a heavy slab of stone. In the cave, Amanoa had the coffin propped up by unknown means. In reverence or worship, she would throw herself on the coffin or at its feet, while calling on the power of Freedon Nadd.

Dxun tomb
Following the Freedon Nadd Uprising in 3,998 BBY, his tomb was moved to the nearby moon of Dxun by Jedi Master Arca Jeth immediately after the uprising was quelled. The new building was constructed of Mandalorian iron, making it nigh-impenetrable. The tomb also contained the sarcophagi of King Ommin and Queen Amanoa, which were much smaller in size and dark side potency than Nadd's own coffin. Over time the surrounding area became saturated with the dark side, so much so that vegetation ceased to grow and only vile creatures ventured close. These creatures were the native wildlife of Dxun, vicious predators who devoured anything in their path. Like its former location, the interior was cold and dark, attributed to the strong dark side power of Freedon Nadd's spirit.

Beast Wars
In 4,000 BBY, when the forces of Iziz went to war against the combined might of the Jedi and Modon Kira's Beast Riders, Amanoa quietly sneaked away under her palace to Nadd's tomb, and drew fully on the power of the dark side focused in his remains. Chanting his name, Amanoa invoked Nadd's spirit and used its power to cause panic and terror amongst the armies of Beast Riders. However, when confronted by the light of Jedi Master Arca Jeth, the shadow of Nadd's spirit was driven from the tomb. Amanoa died, the shadow having been driven from her as well.

To purge the dark side from Onderon permanently, Jeth planned to relocate the sarcophagus along with Amanoa's coffin to Onderon's nearby moon, Dxun. He surmised that the moon's natural fauna would be more than sufficient in deterring any would-be grave robbers. But before the sarcophagi could be moved, they were stolen by the Dark Jedi Warb Null and his army of Naddists, who surprised the Jedi from below with a massive tunnel-boring war machine and confiscated the coffins, retreating with them into the tunnels underground. Master Jeth and his Jedi apprentice Ulic Qel-Droma, led by Queen Galia, followed the Naddists underground where they discovered Warb Null and King Ommin, who was alive and, much to their horror, in league with Freedon Nadd's spirit. Though Ommin was able to subdue and capture Jeth with his Force lightning, the Jedi Master was eventually rescued by a team of Jedi Knights. Ommin was killed, and Nadd's spirit was finally removed from Onderon. Jeth took the sarcophagi of King Ommin, Queen Amanoa, and Freedon Nadd, and finally moved them to Dxun. Building an actual mausoleum of Mandalorian iron, Jeth sealed the tomb and placed it in a remote area of Dxun, to be hopefully left undisturbed.

Post-Naddist Uprising
"To prevent Freedon Nadd from ever exercising his power from beyond the grave, I have transferred his sarcophagus to a great tomb on another world. The tomb is guarded by many beasts. May no one dare to find it."

- Arca Jeth

In 3,997 BBY, it was discovered by the Jedi Exar Kun who managed to break in after finally penetrating the wall with his lightsaber. Upon entering he was confronted by Freedon Nadd's ghost, who directed him to the scrolls hidden under his bones. The scrolls pointed Kun to Korriban, where he would be reunited with Nadd, apprenticed to him and acquire tremendous Sith powers. After the second death of Freedon Nadd, his spirit was banished to Chaos, and the tomb would remain undisturbed for little more than thirty years.

Second Battle of Onderon
"Can't you feel the power of this place? It echoes through you like a second voice. Accept it&hellip; embrace it."

- A Sith Master attempts to turn a member of the Jedi Exile's crew to the dark side

In 3,951 BBY, the tomb was critical to the outcome of the Second Battle of Onderon. Sith forces under the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus used Freedon Nadd's tomb as a base to support the Onderonian General Vaklu and his forces, who wished to overthrow Queen Talia. Transmissions from the Sith were tracked by the Mandalorians under the Mandalorian Kelborn. The current Mandalorian leader, Mandalore the Preserver, was journeying with the Jedi Knight known as the Exile in a quest to reunite the scattered Mandalorian clans. When the Exile and her companions met with Kelborn, a companion of the Exile's, Jedi Master Kreia, recognized that the Sith were on Dxun, and counseled action against the Sith. Before the Exile headed to Onderon to assist the Royalists loyal to Queen Talia, she charged three of her companions with stopping these Sith. The Exile's companions successfully prevented the Sith Masters in the tomb from performing a dark side ritual.

About three thousand years later, the Sith Lord Darth Bane traveled to Freedon Nadd's tomb in search of potential secrets for creating holocrons. Entering the tomb, Bane was displeased to learn that someone had been there before him, though he did not know how long ago. Disillusioned at first, he thought that his trip had been for nothing, until he happened upon an undisturbed chamber, sealed with thick slab of Mandalorian iron. At first Bane was not able to enter the room, but then he used the Dark Side to throw the door across the room. Then, he saw that the room held its own holocron. Bane soon learned that the holocron was not the only thing housed in that room. The secret chamber was infested with orbalisks, tiny crustacean-like creatures that feed on the power of the dark side. When Bane tried to remove the holocron, two of the orbalisks attached themselves to him, one to his chest and the other on his back. Lord Bane remained in the tomb for four days while he delved into its crystal lattices, after which he left the tomb and Dxun with the holocron as well.

Behind the scenes
The tomb of Freedon Nadd was first introduced in the Dark Lords of the Sith story arc of the Tales of the Jedi series of comic books, published by Dark Horse Comics. The burial site was later featured in the 2005 Xbox and PC video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Nadd's tomb serves as a key plot element within the game's storyline. Nadd's tomb was mentioned in Freedon Nadd's entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

If the leader of the expedition has training in the ways of the Force, he or she has a chance to acquire new powers in the tomb, drawing upon a pair of dark side energy nexuses that could be found in the tomb. The first nexus offers the power of Slow, while the second can grant the power of Affliction, provided neither power has yet been chosen by that character during level-up. Alternately, if the character chooses to control their emotions and successfully resists, a temporary bonus to strength and constitution stats can be earned. The Exile's companion in charge of the mission to Freedon Nadd's tomb is recognized as a Force-sensitive by the Sith Master and his fellow Masters. The Sith Master offered the leader a chance to embrace the dark side and the power that the Sith were harnessing to control the beasts on Onderon and Dxun.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi 2: Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon, Part 2
 * Tales of the Jedi (audio)
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising 2: Initiates of the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith (audio)
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 2: The Quest for the Sith
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Bane of the Sith
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two

Notes and references
Freedon Nadds Grab Tumba de Freedon Nadd