Dathka Graush

"It is done. I am free."

- Dathka Graush

Dathka Graush was a male Sith sorcerer who lived on the planet Korriban more than seven millennia before the Battle of Yavin. Brutality and trepidation were the tools Graush used to defeat his enemies during one of Korriban's recurrent civil wars, the end of which saw him acclaimed King of the Sith. In the war's wake, Graush made use of both Sith magic and alchemy in the creation of an army of Korriban zombies; reanimated corpses bound to his will through the dark side of the Force. He also had his heart removed and replaced with a magical crystal that was imbued with the power of the Force's malevolent side. Graush's dynasty ultimately culminated with his death at the hands of assassins, and the Sith King was interred within Korriban's Valley of Golg.

In 2 ABY, the spirit of Dathka Graush was disturbed after millennia of slumber. Cronal, a dark side prophet formerly in the service of his Imperial Majesty Palpatine, forcefully sundered Graush's ghost from his Korriban grave, and forced the Sith king to reveal the most potent of his alchemical secrets. The knowledge Graush imparted to Cronal assisted the latter in the creation and manipulation of the electromagnetically-charged meltmassif crystals.

Rise to power
A pure-blooded male Sith from the planet Korriban, Dathka Graush lived in the especially tumultuous era between the Subterra and Manderon periods of galactic history. Graush's was a life thrust into the commonplace violence of the indigenous Sith as civilization on Korriban degenerated into a primitive state of perpetual war in the millennia following the death of King Adas nearly 20,000 years prior. With none to justly assume the mantle, many Sith declared themselves Sith'ari, or Overlord in the native tongue, as tradition had dictated since Adas' passing. Such was the civil strife that Sith society as a whole was forced to relocate to the nearby world of Ziost, while those who remained on Korriban became religious cultists. Regardless of the controvertible affirmations of authority made by various Sith who sought to claim the "Sith'ari" sobriquet, however, commonality on Korriban remained utterly fragmented as individual Sith vied for worldwide domination.

It was during that time when Dathka Graush earned the reputation of a fierce conqueror. In 7,000 BBY, he and his forces championed a civil war which resulted in the destruction of the majority of Korriban's population centers. Graush emerged victorious, and was crowned King of the Sith in the war's wake. During his reign, Graush continued to expand his reach across Korriban's territories until two thirds of the planet submitted to his rule. Graush dominated his kinsfolk in a manner that was considered extremely brutal even by Sith standards, and his endeavors of bloodshed and terror saw the accumulation of countless corpses. Graush took interest in the abundance of materiel, and with ancient Sith sorcery and alchemy as his means, he created an army of Korriban zombies; undead humanoids with the capability of spreading their plight to other sentient beings through biting.

In an effort to sustain himself through unnatural means, Graush had fashioned for himself a crystalline jewel filled with dark side spirits that had been collected over the millennia. Using both Sith magic and the most advanced technology of the day, Graush replaced his natural-born heart with the crystal. Despite the belief of some that the crystal made Graush invincible, he fell victim to assassins after only fifty years of rule. With his death, the spirits of his re-animated zombie army were sundered from their cadaverous bodies and made to join those already trapped within Graush's crystal heart.

Legacy
An elaborate tomb was constructed for Dathka Graush in Korriban's Valley of Golg. Located near Korriban's equator, the millennia-old tomb metropolis at Golg was one of the many "Valleys of the Sith Lords" scattered across the planet. Graush's and the other tombs that were erected in the Valley were lined with stonework carvings and runes of protective Sith magic. The late king's personal crypt was in a part of the valley utterly devoid of sunlight, within a large cavernous room that contained the shrines and respective pictograms of fourteen Sith sorcerers. The largest shrine of all contained Graush's sarcophagus, where his actual remains had been entombed with a sword, an amulet, his holocron, as well as his crystalline heart.

In 3,963 BBY, a clandestine subsect of supposed lightsiders known as the Jedi Covenant undertook the task of collecting and quarantining all known Sith artifacts, with hopes of both preventing the return of the Sith, as well as the spread of dark side influence through their treasures. Among them was the Helm of Dathka Graush, a battle-headdress thought to have once been worn by the ancient Sith king. Graush's device considerably amplified the Force abilities of its wearer, and was also believed to strengthen the sword of the ancient Sith Lord Ieldis. The power of Graush's helm was also such that, when removed from the protective nullification resin, its residual energies caused significant atmospheric disturbances within a six kilometer radius of the planet Odryn's Sanctum of the Exalted.

Exactly six months before the destruction of the first Death Star, pirate captain Naz Felyood crashed his ship, Jynni's Virtue, on Korriban after being fired upon by cloaked Imperial ships, and following a hyperdrive malfunction. Landing two kilometers north of the Valley of Golg, the crew were forced to stay on Korriban longer than they had originally intended, and eventually came to hope that the faint power readings they were recieving from the valley was enough to get Jynni's Virtue running again. Unknown to them, the apparent power readings were really the result of dark side energies from the valley influencing their electrical systems. Despite this, Felyood climbed down the valley and found his way into Graush's resting place. Felyood infilrated the crypt and singled out Graush's shrine, planning to raid it first. Whilst raiding Graush's sarcophagus of its treasures however, Graush's spirit appeared to the pirate, and tried to convince Felyood that he had something Felyood wanted before finally possessing him.

The awakening of Graush also resulted in resurrecting his long–dead followers from dormancy. The zombies' ravenous hanger for live flesh sent them after the rest of the Jynni's Virtue's crew, spreading the zombies' condition into the crew's numbers on his commands. As a last act, the uninfected members of Virtue's crew committed suicide; causing their ship the self-destruct, vaporising a large potion of Graush's armies that he had set on the crew. What remained of Graush's zombies took the Heart from Felyood, and Graush's shade left with it, leaving Felyood alone and undying, searching for Graush for all of eternity.

At some point, the former Emperor's Hand known as Lord Cronal found Graush's spirit, using knowledge from the Temple of Korman Lao to call upon it. From Graush, Cronal acquired knowledge that he used to construct the Shadow Crown.

Personality and traits
Dathka Graush was a very bloodthirsty and brutal Sith Lord over the people he conquered; considered cruel even by Sith standards. As such, his rule was characterized as a reign of terror.

Power and abilities
Dathka Graush was heralded as a powerful Sith magician and alchemist; his mastery of both served him in the creation of his Korriban zombies.

Behind the scenes
There is some degree of ambiguity present in the Wizards of the Coast article. It states that Graush was a "pure blooded Dark Lord" and that he ruled over two-thirds of Korriban before 7,000 BBY. Because his reign ended with his death after fifty years of rule it seems impossible that he is a "Dark Lord," because he died before the Dark Jedi arrived on Korriban after the Hundred-Year Darkness. However, it is already established that Ajunta Pall was possibly the first Dark Lord of the Sith. And also, this information about him being a Dark Lord may be retconned as it is stated in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor that Dathka Graush was a Sith King.

His name was misspelled "Grausch" in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 29: Exalted, Part 1.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 29: Exalted, Part 1
 * Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

Notes and references
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