Darth Desolous

"A thousand Jedi died cursing Darth Desolous. Now you too will scream my name."

- Darth Desolous

Darth Desolous, born circa 3522 BBY, was a male Pau'an Jedi Master prior to becoming a Sith Lord. After he studied Sith teachings and fell to the dark side of the Force, he was expelled from the Jedi Order. As the new Dark Lord of the Sith, Desolous swore revenge on the Jedi and assembled an army of Pau'ans, whom he trained in martial arts and used in his fight against the Order. Desolous and his men slew almost two thousand Jedi, until they were crushed by the Jedi Order during a battle on the planet Yaga Minor. During the battle, Desolous was killed. A simulacrum of Darth Desolous was later incorporated into the Jedi Temple's Trial of Skill program. In 3 BBY, the program activated itself and fought Sith Lord Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller, and was defeated by him.

The Master's fall
"It took the entire Council to kill me, boy. You have no hope."

- Darth Desolous

The man who would eventually become Darth Desolous was originally a revered Pau'an male Jedi Master born around 3522 BBY. A formidable warrior who craved battle, the Master studied Sith teachings and fell to the dark side of the Force, which led to his expulsion from the Jedi Order. Enraged, the individual became the Sith Lord "Darth Desolous" and vowed to have his revenge on the Jedi. Effectively, Desolous became the Dark Lord of the Sith of that time period. Soon enough, Desolous began training an army of Pau'ans in his own style of martial arts, which combined Cortosis shields and melee weapons.

He eventually rallied his army in a series of ambushes against Jedi Knights across the galaxy that led to the slaughter of nearly two thousand Jedi. With each victory Desolous grew more bold, but also more reckless and overconfident. Such carelessness ultimately led to his downfall, when Desolous and his army attacked a small force of Jedi on the planet Yaga Minor. Those Jedi, however, were simply acting as bait meant to draw Desolous into a tactically disadvantageous position. When Desolous struck at Yaga Minor, a large Jedi fleet emerged from hyperspace and effectively prevented the Sith Lord from retreating. Desolous's Pau'ans were outnumbered and eventually killed, and the Sith Lord himself was struck down as well, although it allegedly required the entire Jedi Council to do so.

Legacy
"I am more powerful in death than I was in life!"

- Darth Desolous

Darth Desolous's legacy far outlived his death. Although his birth name had been lost to history, his Sith name became synonymous with hatred and anger. Because of that, Desolous's visage was eventually incorporated into the Jedi Trials program for Padawans who were considered for promotion to the rank of Jedi Knight. The life-like image of Desolous manifested as a personification of a Padawan's own personal weaknesses and, as part of the "Trial of Skill," was meant to help the students achieve control over their baseline raw emotions. Appearing in the Coruscant Jedi Temple's trial chamber, the simulacrum was fully aware of Desolous's physical death, and it boasted that it required the powers of the entire Jedi Council to kill him. Even after the Jedi Temple was ravaged in 19 BBY during Operation: Knightfall, the simulacrum of Desolous remained active, waiting for another opponent to engage in battle.

That battle finally occurred in 3 BBY, when Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader sent his secret apprentice, Starkiller, to the Jedi Temple to continue his training. Once Starkiller entered the Trials Chamber, Desolous, armed with his signature cortosis shield and a red-bladed lightsaber, struck him with a bolt of red Force lightning. The two engaged in a duel, with Desolous constantly taunting Starkiller and bragging about the murders he had committed while he had been alive. However, Starkiller defeated the program when he threw the ancient Sith Lord on the chamber's floor and toppled a statue onto his body. Receiving new orders from Vader, Starkiller then left the Jedi Temple and embarked on a new mission.

Personality and traits
"Your hatred cannot defeat me."

- Darth Desolous

Before he fell to the dark side, Desolous was a respected Jedi Master. However, he was plagued by a lust for battle, which led to his fall. After his expulsion from the Jedi Order, Desolous became enraged and vengeful, remorselessly slaughtering numerous Jedi Knights in his bloodthirsty quest. With each killing, Desolous became increasingly overconfident, and in his arrogance, failed to perceive the Jedi trap on Yaga Minor until it was too late. Desolous' birth name was eventually forgotten, and his only legacy was one of hatred and rage.

Desolous' self-confidence was well represented by the Jedi Temple training hologram based on him. The simulation was evidently self-aware, believing that it was more powerful in death than Desolous had been in life, and voiced the intention to claim leadership of the Sith once again. The artificial manifestation admitted that Starkiller was powerful in the Dark Side, but still considered the apprentice no match for him.

Powers and abilities
"The dark side is indeed your ally, but I am its master."

- Darth Desolous

Darth Desolous was a fierce warrior who developed his own fighting style that favored the usage of a cortosis shield along with a melee weapon. The shield was used to block an opponent's attack&mdash;even a lightsaber strike&mdash;leaving the enemy open to counterattack. Desolous was powerful enough to face and murder many Jedi, and his simulacrum later claimed that the Sith Lord had been taken down only by the combined strength of the Jedi Council members. The Desolous simulacrum employed a cortosis shield and a red-bladed lightsaber, and complemented their use with powers of the Force, including lightning, rage, and telekinesis.

Behind the scenes
The character of Darth Desolous was first mentioned on Holocron continuity database keeper Leland Chee's blog in 2006, where his name was said to be inspired by the word "desolate." No further information was revealed about him until 2008, which saw the release of The Force Unleashed video game. Darth Desolous, appearing as a Jedi simulation, was featured in one of the Jedi Temple levels exclusive to the Krome Studios-developed PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii versions of the game, wherein he was voiced by Kristoffer Tabori. In those versions of The Force Unleashed, entering "PAUAN" as a cheat code enables Darth Desolous as a playable character skin. Desolous is also an unlockable character in the PSP version's "Force Duel" mode. Desolous later received a brief entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

The exact nature of Desolous's appearance in The Force Unleashed is rather ambiguous. However, the game's databank entry for Jedi Trials implies that the simulacrum is projected with the Force, stating that, "Some of the most common trials involved battles against fearsome Force constructs lurking deep within the bowels of the Jedi Temple." On the other hand, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force, a 2010 reference book, describes a holographic projector installed inside the Jedi Temple after the final battle on the planet Ruusan during the New Sith Wars. According to the book, the projector was used during the Jedi Trials by creating simulations of long-dead dark side "monsters." The book's author, Daniel Wallace, later confirmed in his blog that he intended this line to reference Darth Desolous and Darth Phobos&mdash;another Sith simulation from The Force Unleashed&mdash;but he withheld from spelling their names out in order to avoid any potential timeline conflict.