Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 6, 2013/1

Ulic Qel-Droma was, during different parts of his life, a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic, a warlord in the Empress Teta star system, and a Dark Lord of the Sith. A Human male native of the planet Alderaan, Ulic and his brother Cay were born to Jedi Master Lien-Tsai Qel-Droma, but trained alongside the Twi'lek Tott Doneeta under Master Arca Jeth on Arkania. In 4,000 BBY, Ulic was sent with Cay and Doneeta to resolve the centuries-long Beast Wars of the planet Onderon. Although they initially sided with the monarchy of the capital city Iziz, Qel-Droma and his fellow Jedi eventually allied with the Beast Riders of Onderon after they learned that the Royal Family worshiped the dark side of the Force under the leadership of Queen Amanoa. A great battle subsequently broke out between the Queen's forces and those of the Beast Riders, and ended when Ulic's Master Jeth arrived to assist in the defeat of Amanoa, which brought temporary peace to Onderon.

Amanoa's husband, King Ommin, emerged from hiding in 3,998 BBY to disrupt Onderon's peace by waging war in the name of the ancient Dark Lord of the Sith Freedon Nadd. Qel-Droma and the Jedi once again fought to defend Onderon, but when Master Jeth was captured by Ommin and Freedon Nadd's spirit, Qel-Droma requested aid from the Galactic Senate. Qel-Droma's help arrived in the form of the Republic Navy and a team of five additional Jedi Knights, led by novice Jedi Nomi Sunrider&mdash;with whom Qel-Droma would later fall in love. Bolstered by the strength of the Navy and Sunrider's innate talent with Jedi battle meditation, Qel-Droma and his comrades rescued Jeth, defeated King Ommin and his army, and banished Freedon Nadd's ghost from the planet forever. When the Jedi learned of a political uprising in the Empress Teta system by the newly-formed Krath cult, Qel-Droma acted as a liaison for the Order and joined the Republic for an assault in Tetan space. However, Qel-Droma was overcome by the Krath's Force powers and suffered near-fatal wounds as the Republic was forced into retreat by the Sith usurpers.

The Jedi had become increasingly concerned with the threat posed to the galaxy by the Krath, and gathered en masse on the planet Deneba to discuss a course of action. It was there that Qel-Droma outlined a controversial plan to infiltrate the dark side cult and destroy them from within, a proposal that was rejected by nearly all those present. The Krath soon ambushed the convocation with a bombardment of war droids. Qel-Droma fought alongside his fellow Jedi, but was devastated when Jeth was unexpectedly killed. He then swore to avenge his Master through infiltration of the Krath, against the pleas of his peers. Qel-Droma traveled to Empress Teta and joined them, initially pretending to be a fallen Jedi. Soon, however, he was injected with a rage-inducing poison by Krath warlord Satal Keto and began over time to fall to the dark side himself. The Jedi soon came to retrieve him and witnessed the death of Satal Keto at Qel-Droma's hands, before the enraged Dark Jedi lashed out at his friends and refused their rescue attempt. Later, when the Jedi tried and failed to extract Qel-Droma&mdash;now the Krath leader, having taken Keto's cousin Aleema Keto as his lover&mdash;another of Freedon Nadd's students, Exar Kun, arrived to eliminate the Krath. Qel-Droma engaged him in a duel, but the contest was interrupted by the spirit of a long-deceased Sith, who proclaimed Qel-Droma and Kun to be Sith Lords. Together, they resolved to wage war on the galaxy.

The new Sith Lord Qel-Droma began to consolidate his own power, first with his subjugation the Mandalorian warrior clans and his hijacking of Republic military resources. Qel-Droma eventually led an attack on the galactic capital of Coruscant, where he was betrayed and abandoned by Aleema Keto and then captured by Jedi Knights under the leadership of Master Vodo-Siosk Baas. Scheduled to stand trial as a war criminal before the Senatorial Inquisition, Qel-Droma was ultimately rescued by Kun and Mandalore the Indomitable, with whom Qel-Droma resumed his campaign of terror against the Republic. After eliminating the treacherous Aleema Keto, Qel-Droma next joined Kun in an assault on the Jedi fortress-world of Ossus, where he slew his brother Cay in the presence of his former comrades. The act of fratricide infuriated the Jedi, and Nomi Sunrider exercised her power to sever Qel-Droma's connection to the Force. Utterly defeated and mortified by his own actions, Qel-Droma renounced his allegiance to the Sith. He then led the Jedi to Kun's stronghold on Yavin 4, where the combined forces of the Jedi and the Republic Navy defeated the fugitive Dark Lord in a final battle. After the war, a broken Qel-Droma exiled himself to Rhen Var, and hoped to live out his days in solitude. However, he was found by aspiring Jedi&mdash;Nomi Sunrider's daughter Vima, whom he agreed to train as a Jedi. After he found success and a measure of inner peace through his tutelage of Sunrider, Qel-Droma was soon killed, shot by a spacer named Hoggon who wanted to become a famous hero.