Exar Kun/Legends

"Go on to your higher plane, teacher. The galaxy is mine now." -- Exar Kun

Exar Kun (lived circa 4,000 BBY, spirit destroyed 11 ABY) was a highly talented Jedi apprentice to the Old Republic Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, Dark Lord of the Sith, and dark side spirit in the fictional Star Wars universe. He first appeared in Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy.

Exar Kun was a rash and talented youth, and these qualities together resulted in his development of arrogance, a quality which is unbecoming and dangerous in Jedi. He was masterful at lightsaber combat, often fighting with two blades at once. He also invented the double-bladed lightsaber later in life, which later served as a source of inspiration for later Sith and, in a few rare cases, Jedi and Dark Jedi, to create their own, among them Bastila Shan, Master Kavar, Darth Maul, Azrakel the Dark Warrior, and Jaden Korr. This weapon was also very popular with the Sith during Darth Revan's Sith War.

After fully turning to the Dark Side and being proclaimed a Sith Lord by ancient spirits of the Sith, Exar Kun fled to the moon Yavin 4. There he elevated himself to the status of a god and enslaved the native Massassi race. After doing so, he forced them to construct a great complex of temples that were used in arcane Sith ceremonies and rites. He then allied himself with the Krath of the Empress Teta System, the Mandalorians and a band of Jedi he had seduced to the dark side and converted into Sith to begin a war aganst the Jedi and the Republic.

After clashing and actually fighting several times with Vodo-Siosk Baas, Exar Kun struck him down at the doors of the Old Republic Senate chamber. This opened the eyes of all around him who had not already seen his descent into the dark side of the Force.

Under him the Sith were able to force the Jedi to abandon their main facilities on Ossus, though he was betrayed later by Ulic Qel-Droma who led the Republic to his temples at Yavin 4. There at Yavin, Kun drained the life-force of the entire Massassi race and bound his spirit to the temples they had built for him. He remained largely dormant and was even forgotten as the centuries passed.

Much later, some of these temples were used by the Rebel Alliance as a base of operations as depicted in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. These temples went on to become the site of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum, a school where he began the re-creation of the Jedi Order. Exar Kun's presence was felt again only after Luke established his Praxeum. As a spirit, Kun appeared to, tried to corrupt, and killed the Jedi apprentice Gantoris, and then successfully corrupted and partly possessed the very talented young Kyp Durron.

In addition, he somehow sundered Luke Skywalker's spirit from his own body, resulting in great confusion and dismay amongst Luke's then-few Jedi apprentices. As depicted in the novels Dark Apprentice and Champions of the Force, Kun's spirit was eventually outed and destroyed by the combined efforts of the Jedi apprentices, Luke's spirit, and the long-dead spirit of Kun's slain master, Vodo-Siosk Baas.