Momin

"If people feel nothing when encountering something you have created&hellip;then you have created nothing."

- Momin

Momin was a Sith Lord and sculptor. He sculpted his own creations using his mind and the force and unlike other Sith, he aspired to make his legacy through his creations. For his ideas and aspirations, he was eventually imprisoned until a Sith named Shaa came to free him.

Post death, his story was suppressed, and by the time of the Age of the Empire, all of his works were believed to have been lost. After Order 66 and the hunt for Jocasta Nu, Darth Sidious recovered the Mask of Lord Momin from the Jedi Archive vault. After learning from the mask of Momin's story, Sidious gave it to Vader as a gift for his journey to Mustafar, where Vader sought to make the world his own personal stronghold. There, the mask killed Vader's Chief Imperial Architect, Colonel Alva Brenne, and possessed Lieutenant Roggo, her aide. When Vader examined the mask, it told him of Momin's past, like it did with Sidious. Years later, when infiltrating the Imperial yacht Imperialis, Korin Pers, an expert in antiquities, told Lando Calrissian that she believed the Sith artifacts on the ship were created by Lord Momin.

Yearning for power
"I, Momin, was a sculptor of the mind. They locked me away so they would not have to see it."

- Momin, to Darth Vader

From a young age, Momin experimented with the force with his mind. One day, his mother was searching for their rada-cat, Flitta, when she found that Momin had mutilated the animal for one of his creations. Momin's used the force to sculpt his own creations, but when he showed his work in front of others, they scowled at it, and he was locked away.

Although he was now imprisoned, Momin's teachings spread throughout the galaxy, and eventually, a Sith named Shaa came to free him. She made him her Sith apprentice and taught him about the dark side of the Force. Many things that Momin knew about himself but never understood finally became clear to him. However, he came to despise being an apprentice and considered himself second to no one. Shaa disagreed with him, so he proved this to her by killing her during one of their duels. Now without a Sith Master, Momin aspired to learn about the dark side and visited many great sites. He came to realize that he was only creating his work for the ordinary, who did not understand. To Momin, the force was the only true audience. This prompted him to create something that could make him worthy of himself.

After studying and learning more, Momin embarked upon his newest project. With resources he had inherited from Shaa, and the assistance of acolytes who were desperate to help him in his work, he designed his own weapon. It was enough to incinerate an entire city, but it came with an addition: Momin wanted to use the fear of its victims and, using the force, freeze them in their last moments for the galaxy to witness until the end of time. But when he attempted to use this, a pair of Jedi broke in an began slaughtering the acolytes. Momin lost control of the energy he was trying to wield and missed his chance to when the weapon fired and vapourized the city. When the Jedi found Momin, he had been burned to ash, leaving only his mask.

Living through a mask
"Momin was uncommon among Sith. Many of us build our legacy through destruction. Momin preferred to create."

- Darth Sidious, to Darth Vader on Momin

Momin was considered a heretic by the Sith and his teachings were covered up. His name was never recorded in either Jedi holocrons or Sith holocrons, and his unique uses in the force were never replicated. Many years after his death, his works were thought to have been lost.

Although Momin was dead, his spirit lived on through his mask, which was stored in a secret vault in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. 19 Years before the Battle of Yavin the Sith Lord Darth Vader fought the former Chief Librarian Jocasta Nu in the Temple, she fled into the vault which led to Vader learning of its existence. After killing the former Jedi Vader informed his master Darth Sidious of the vault and the Sith Lord took the helmet into his collection of Sith artifacts.

When Sidious later examined the mask, it told him of Momin's past and years later, Sidious gifted the helmet to Vader, believing that the artifact would guide his apprentice during his studies on Mustafar. The mask came to possess Lieutenant Roggo during Vader's visit, using the officer to design a castle for the Sith Lord. When Vader discovered what had happened, Roggo had finished it, as murdering Vader's original sculptor, Alva Brenne, under the guidance of the mask. Vader took the mask to the Sith cave on Mustafar and reached into it with the force. From there, Momin revealed his past to him and attempted to possess Vader with the mask. The Sith Lord resisted, but when leaving the cave, he ran into a group of Mustafarians. Vader killed many of them, but used the mask to possess one of them, giving Momin a body again. Momin agreed to build Darth Vader's castle and wanted to use it as a tuning fork for the force.

A short time after the Battle of Yavin the helmet was stored on Sidious' personal yacht the Imperialis.

Personality and traits
"A successful piece makes anyone who sees it&hellip;an animal."

- Momin

Momin was a male individual with blonde hair, hazel eyes, and gray skin. From a young age, he came to believe that if an individual did not feel anything when encountering a creation, then its creator had made nothing. He created unconventional uses for the Force that were never again replicated. Despite being a Sith, Momin was different than most of the Sith Lords. Rather than gain power and influence by destroying, he preferred to create. His views of the Force were so extreme, that neither Jedi nor Sith holocrons mentioned him.

Skills and abilities
Momin was a sculptor. He used the force to create what was on his mind, although it did not satisfy and terrified those he presented it to. As a result, the public masses locked him away because of it. His expertise outweighed that of Alva Brenne's when she attempted to satisfy the needs of Darth Vader for his castle on Mustafar.

Equipment
During his time as a Sith lord, Momin wore his mask frequently, almost never being seen without it. He also wielded a pair of red Sith lightsabers resembling rapiers.

Behind the scenes
"Wrote Darth Vader #22 today - FORTRESS VADER Part 4, or "The Tale of Lord Momin." I really like it. I've had this story in mind since my Lando book (with @alexmaleev & @paulmounts) in 2015. Wasn't sure I'd ever get a chance to tell it."

- Charles Soule, on Twitter

Lord Momin was created by writer Charles Soule for the fourth issue of the Star Wars: Lando comic book series, published on September 6, 2015. Soule since had a further story in mind for Momin and wrote it in the form of Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 22: Fortress Vader, Part IV, the twenty-second issue of the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic book series. Momin's backstory was first revealed in the prior issue Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 21: Fortress Vader, Part III, published on September 12, 2018. Momin first appeared in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 22: Fortress Vader, Part IV, where his backstory was subsequently continued.

Appearances

 * Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 21: Fortress Vader, Part III
 * Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 22: Fortress Vader, Part IV
 * Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 23: Fortress Vader, Part V
 * Lando, Part IV