Darth Mortis

"If you had lived as long as I have, Thanaton, you would not revere the past so unquestioningly."

- Darth Mortis

Darth Mortis was a Human male Sith Lord who served on the resurgent Sith Empire's ruling Dark Council during the Cold War with the Galactic Republic. One of the twelve Dark Lords of the Sith who sat on the Council, Mortis presided over the Sphere of Laws and Justice. Mortis trained at least one Sith apprentice, Zavrasha, and he was committed to ensuring that the Treaty of Coruscant remained in place, though he assumed a leadership role alongside Darth Marr and Darth Ravage as the Dark Council's numbers thinned throughout the Galactic War with the Republic.

Biography
"I'm sorry, Thanaton&hellip;"

- Darth Mortis, before breaking Darth Thanaton's neck

Darth Mortis was a Human male who had risen to the rank of Sith Lord in the resurgent Empire by the time of the Cold War with the Galactic Republic. The older man was sufficiently powerful enough to be granted a seat on the Empire's ruling Dark Council, and as one of the twelve Dark Lords of the Sith he controlled a Sphere of Influence within the Empire: specifically, Mortis controlled the Sphere of Laws and Justice. As head of the Sphere, Mortis was charged with overseeing the Imperial justice system and those branches of the Empire that maintained the law within its society. By the end of the Cold War, Mortis had also begun training a Sith apprentice named Zavrasha, and he dispatched her to the neutral moon of Nar Shaddaa in order to ensure that Admiral Ange's efforts there did not endanger the peace brought about by Treaty of Coruscant. The Sith Lord Darth Gravus, who was placed in charge of the invasion of Taris, was a political ally of Mortis.

As the Galactic War broke out with the Republic, Darth Mortis and the other members of the Council were summoned by fellow Councilor Darth Baras to their meeting chamber on Korriban. Darth Decimus, Hadra, and Acharon were overseeing the Battle of Corellia, so the three attended via hologram. Darths Marr and Ravage were present on Korriban with Mortis, where Baras attempted to declare himself the Voice of the Emperor&mdash;the public extension of the Sith Emperor's will and thereby the ruler of the entire Empire. However, Baras was interrupted by the arrival of Darth Vowrawn and Baras' former apprentice. The Sith Warrior, who had been appointed as the Emperor's Wrath after Baras had betrayed his student, battled the false Voice before the rest of the Council.

After the Wrath killed Baras, Darth Vowrawn led Mortis and the others in acknowledging the truth of the Emperor's support for the warrior, accepting that the Wrath was not bound by the Council's wishes. When the Wrath departed, Darth Thanaton brought his own matter before his fellow Councilors: the head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge was engaged in a Kaggath, an ancient Sith ritual duel, against his rival and subordinate Lord Kallig. After being bested by Kallig on Corellia, Thanaton appealed to Mortis, Ravage, Vowrawn, and Marr to eliminate the upstart slave, though the other Dark Councilors refused to interfere when Kallig arrived to continue their battle. After Kallig defeated Thanaton and forced him to submit, Mortis rose from his seat and apologized to his fellow Councilor before breaking his neck with the Force. Acknowledging Kallig as the victor, the four Dark Councilors present rewarded the young Sith Lord with Thanaton's now-vacant seat on the Council, and they brushed off the newly-appointed Darth Nox's question when the Emperor would meet with the Council. As the Council adjourned, Mortis advised Nox to return Dromund Kaas and ensure the loyalty of their followers, promising to summon Nox the next time the Dark Council congregates.

After the Battle of Corellia ended with a Republic victory and the deaths of Decimus, Hadra, and Acharon, the Dark Council was angered to learn that the Sith Lord Darth Malgus declared his own empire on the planet Ilum&mdash;an empire that did not discriminate against alien species and was not beholden to the political infighting that the current Empire was. Mortis assumed a leadership role on the Council along with Marr and Ravage, dispatching Grand Moff Ilyan Regus and Darth Arho, Baras' successor as head of the Sphere of Military Offense, to conduct the campaign against both Malgus and the Republic there. Mortis and the other Councilors would later meet in their chambers beneath the Imperial Citadel on the capital of Dromund Kaas to debate who would succeed Darth Hadra as the head of the Sphere of Technology, and Mortis was one of several Councilors who refused to support Darth Marr's candidate, the Falleen Darth Karrid. Mortis believed that the Empire was wrong in adopting Malgus' policy of allowing aliens to join their ranks, and he proposed the Human traditionalist Darth Gravus in opposition to Karrid. To that end, he tried to convince the rest of the Council to grant Gravus a seat once he reclaimed the mineral-rich world of Leritor. After Karrid disposed of Gravus, Mortis chose to support Karrid, admitting that he had underestimated her.

During Makeb invasion by the Hutt Cartel, Darth Mortis summoned an Imperial individual to assist him against The Shroud, a spy who wanted to plan a rogue attack on Dromund Kaas. The Dark Councilor introduced Evie Bo, the ex top-lieutenant of The Shroud, to the Imperial individual who gave him the microbinoculars in order to find another lieutenant in the city and stop The Shroud. After neutralizing the Shroud lieutenant, the Imperial individual traveled across the galaxy to uncover the Shroud's plan. The trail eventually lead to Nar Shaddaa, where Bo and the Imperial individual uncovered the Shroud's plan to launch a ship through hyperspace into Kaas City. The Imperial individual managed to thwart both the attack and kill the Shroud, or so it seemed. When the individual returned to Dromund Kaas, the Shroud hijacked Mortis' holofrequency, revealing that a double was killed in his place. Before signing off, the Shroud used a trigger phrase to activate a neural scrambler in Bo's brain, erasing her memory. As Mortis managed to get through, the individual convinced an amnesiac Bo that she is a servant of the Empire.

Personality and traits
"Elevating a Falleen to the Council shows other species that there is a place for them in our Empire.''" "''Perhaps the problem is that the other species have forgotten their proper place."

- Darth Marr and Darth Mortis

A Human male with red eyes, pale skin, and black hair, Mortis was among the older members of the Council by the end of the Cold War. He did not place much faith in Sith traditions, though he was a believer in the Empire's anti-alien policies and&mdash;something that led him to support Darth Gravus over Darth Karrid when the Dark Council was considering whom to give Darth Hadra's Dark Council seat to. Nevertheless, he changed his tune when Karrid outmanuevered and killed Gravus, realizing that he had underestimated her.

Powers and abilities
A powerful practitioner of the dark side of the Force, Darth Mortis was a master of telekinesis and lightsaber combat. Darth Mortis was also well skilled in the art of Force choke. It was even stated that Emperor Vitiate himself was aware of Mortis' power and was conviced apart from Darth Marr he was the only one of them who posed a threat to his throne. He was known to be a master of mental manipulation and was an adept user of spells and telepathic skills that drove victims insane. He was a master of Force lightning and of sith sorcery particularly rituals, use of blast spheres and explosions of pure dark side energy.

Behind the scenes
Darth Mortis first appeared in the finales of the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by BioWare and LucasArts. He also appeared in the 2012 reference guide Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia, which identified him as the head of the Sphere of Laws and Justice. He then played a important role in the Shade quest chain, but his ultimate fate is left unrevealed.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * The Old Republic: Annihilation