Darth Bandon

"I have studied at the foot of the Dark Lord himself!"

- Darth Bandon, to Revan

Darth Bandon was a Human male Jedi Padawan who defected to the Sith Empire during the Jedi Civil War, a conflict initiated by the Sith Lords Darth Revan and Darth Malak. Sometime after Malak betrayed his Master Revan during an ambush by the Jedi and Republic forces attempting to capture them, Bandon became Malak's first Shadow Hand, elevating him to second-in-command of the Sith Empire.

When the Sith attacked the Republic warship Endar Spire above the planet Taris, Bandon boarded the ship with the Sith troopers and Dark Jedi under his command, and tried to capture the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan. He killed the Republic ensign Trask Ulgo, who sacrificed himself to save the former Sith Lord Revan, who was programmed to be loyal to the Republic by the Jedi Council.

Sometime after Taris' destruction, Malak dispatched Bandon to find and capture Shan&mdash;who managed to escape Taris with Revan and his companion's help&mdash;after the bounty hunter Calo Nord, who was hired by Malak to capture Shan, was slain by Revan. Bandon tracked down and confronted Revan, Shan, and their allies after they had found the fourth of the Rakatan Star Maps that would lead them to the location of the Star Forge&mdash;the ancient Rakatan space station under Malak's control. Bandon underestimated the former Dark Lord and his companions, assuming that they would be no match for him. This proved to be his downfall, as Revan and his team vanquished Malak's apprentice, along with the Dark Jedi accompanying him.

Early life
The Human male who would be known as Darth Bandon was a Jedi Padawan, though he never fully accepted the teachings of the Jedi Code. Even though the Force flowed through him, Bandon's powerful emotions&mdash;such as anger and hatred&mdash;raged within, fueling his strength. His Jedi Master tried to curb these strong emotions, but the brash Jedi chafed under his Master's guidance.

In the year 3,959 BBY, the former Jedi Knights Revan and Malak, the heroes of the Mandalorian Wars, found the ancient Star Forge spacestation&mdash;a relic of the Infinite Empire of the Rakata species that had ruled the galaxy nearly 20,000 years before&mdash;and named themselves the new Dark Lords of the Sith. Revan and Malak declared war on the Jedi Council and the Galactic Republic, and initiated the Jedi Civil War. Bandon rejected his old Master and the Jedi Order, fleeing to the revitalized Sith Academy on the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban.

Jedi Civil War
As a student in the new Korriban Sith academy, Bandon fully embraced the teachings of the dark side and the Sith Code. This&mdash;along with his strength with the Force, his natural cruelty, and his utter ruthlessness in his quest for power&mdash;soon set him apart from his fellow students, and brought him to the attention of Darth Malak, Revan's Sith apprentice. Bandon eventually won Malak's admiration. Two years into the Jedi Civil War, the Jedi and Republic forces set a trap for Revan and Malak in an attempt to capture both Sith Lords. During the battle, Malak betrayed his Sith Master by ordering his flagship's guns to fire on Revan's vessel. After Malak thought he successfully eliminated Revan, he seized his former Master's mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.

In the tradition of the Sith Order, Malak sought a single learner among his followers to become his official apprentice, someone that could learn the Sith secrets and use them to effectively destroy the Jedi and the Republic. Malak took the promising Bandon as his Shadow Hand, which made him second only to his Master in the Sith Empire. Malak imparted much of his Sith knowledge to the young Bandon, and was not disappointed with his choice, since many Jedi soon found themselves the victims of Bandon and his double-bladed lightsaber. It was not long before rumors began to spread that Bandon would challenge his Master for the right to rule, as was the manner of the Sith. Bandon eventually began to set his sights on his Sith Master's throne.

Raiding the Endar Spire
"Damn–another Dark Jedi! I'll try to hold him off, you get to the escape pods! Go!"

- Trask Ulgo sacrifices himself against Bandon

In the year 3,956 BBY, Darth Malak was searching for a Jedi Knight named Bastila Shan, fearing her strength in Battle meditation, a Force power that boosted the Republic forces' morale during battle, while sapping the Sith's will to fight. When Malak learned of Shan's location on the Republic warship Endar Spire above the planet Taris, he sent a Sith battle fleet to ambush the ship. Bandon led the boarding party that stormed the Endar Spire, in an attempt to capture or kill Shan. An amnesiac Revan&mdash;who had been rescued by Shan after Malak betrayed him, and mind-wiped by the Jedi Council&mdash;was placed under Shan's command as a common Republic soldier on the Endar Spire. Bandon confronted Revan and the Republic ensign Trask Ulgo during their attempt to reach the ship's escape pods and ensure that Shan escaped the ship alive.

Bandon was given a chance to kill the former Dark Lord; however, before he could do so, Ulgo made a desperate and futile charge, sacrificing himself so that Revan could get to the escape pods and flee the ship with the Republic commander Carth Onasi. After Bandon killed Ulgo, he escaped the Endar Spire before Sith interceptors destroyed the ship. Shan successfully fled the ship aboard one of the escape pods, and crash-landed on Taris, as did Revan and Onasi. Malak ordered a blockade of the planet, so that the Sith could search for Shan.

Search for Bastila and downfall
"My apprentice, Darth Bandon, shall take care of our young Jedi friend. [&hellip;] Find Bastila and bring her to me. Alive if possible." "As you command, Master."

- Darths Malak and Bandon

Sometime after Malak ordered the destruction of Taris in an attempt to kill Bastila Shan, Malak hired the bounty hunter Calo Nord to find and capture her. After Nord was killed by Revan, who had been retrained in the Jedi ways and commissioned by the Jedi Council on the planet Dantooine to find the Star Forge, the Sith Admiral Saul Karath informed Malak of Nord's failure. Malak determined that no mere bounty hunter could stand against a Jedi, and sent Bandon after Revan, Bastila, and their companions, ordering his apprentice to bring Bastila to him&mdash;alive, if at all possible.

After Revan and his companions found the fourth of the five Rakatan Star Maps that would lead them to the Star Forge, Bandon confronted Revan. Accompanied by two Dark Jedi, the Shadow Hand presumed that Revan and his team would be no match for him, expressing his fear that someone else had killed the redeemed Jedi, thereby depriving Bandon the "pleasure" of slaying him. Bandon also stated that while Revan may have defeated Calo Nord&mdash;whom Bandon thought was pathetic&mdash;that the former Dark Lord was no match for him. Revan recognized Bandon, stating that he would pay for killing Trask Ulgo. Bandon told Revan that his words meant nothing to him, unless he wished to beg for his life, and added that he would try to make Revan's death both quick and painful. Bandon and his Dark Jedi then fought Revan and his companions, but despite the Sith apprentice's skill, Bandon&mdash;and the two Dark Jedi assisting him&mdash;were killed by Revan and his team.

Legacy
After hearing news of Bandon's death, Malak decided to make Bastila his new apprentice and succeeded by torturing her. Together, with the use of Bastila's battle meditation, the Sith would crush the Republic. However, the former Dark Lord Revan made Malak's joy short-lived as he turned the woman he loved back to the light, killed his former apprentice, and helped destroy the Star Forge.

Bandon's role in the Jedi Civil War was remembered for millenia to come, although over this time some of the details of his role as Malak's apprentice were obscured. In an entry on the Jedi Civil War from the Twi'lek Jedi Deesra Luur Jada's holocron, when Revan and Bastila Shan were captured by Admiral Karath's flagship Leviathan, Bandon was killed after Revan managed to escape. In 40 ABY, the investigatory agent Gannod Chant&mdash;who worked for the Council on Security and Intelligence&mdash;translated a manuscript written by suspected Sith sympathizer Ingo Wavlud. Walvud's manuscript stated that Bandon died in the year 3,951 BBY, along with Darths Traya, Sion, and Nihilus.

Personality and traits
During his time as a Sith, the human male known as Darth Bandon was known for his ruthless behavior. It was not uncommon for him to take the lives of people and damage equipment to enforce his position for a perceived transgression as minor as walking in his way. He was also focused on the destruction of the Republic, and the slaughter and extinction of the Jedi Order. Bandon thought that his skills were more than adequate to defeat Revan and his companions, telling the former Dark Lord that he was no match for him.

Some in the Sith hierarchy felt that Bandon would eventually rise to challenge Malak for his mantle of Dark Lord, because of the Sith belief that the strongest must rule&mdash;and when the apprentice surpassed the Master, the Master must fall. As time went by, Bandon grew arrogant, and he began plotting to overthrow Malak. After Bandon joined the Sith ranks, he constructed a double-bladed lightsaber containing a red crystal. His lightsaber resembled the one used by the Sith Lord Exar Kun, who initiated the Great Sith War forty years before the end of the Jedi Civil War. Bandon also wore a customized set of light fiber armor which he fitted to his robes.

Powers and abilities
"You may have defeated the pathetic bounty hunter my Master sent after you, but you are no match for me!"

- Darth Bandon, to Revan

Darth Bandon spoke and comprehended the Basic and Sith languages. He was proficient in the use of his double-bladed lightsaber, killing scores of his former Jedi brethren. He also displayed his proficiency in using a single lightsaber when he dueled the Cathar Jedi Juhani. Before he fought Revan, he had yet to meet his equal in combat.

Because of his strength in the Force, Bandon was capable of using many Force powers. He could use the Force to push his opponents to the ground, and could use it to alter the air currents around his opponent, turning it into a maelstrom. This swirling vortex of Force energy would lift an opponent into the air, spin them around, and completely immobilize them. Bandon was also able to use the Force to render himself virtually invulnerable to most offensive Force powers for a limited time, demonstrating this against Revan.

Bandon's strength with the dark side of the Force enabled him to use dark-sided powers such as Force lightning, and he also used the dark side to tap into his rage and direct it against his opponents. He could use the Force to instill fear in his opponents, driving them temporarily insane. Bandon was capable of using the dark side to drain his enemies' life-forces, and to strangle his opponents. He could also use it to debilitate his victims, having it work as a fast-acting toxin.

Behind the scenes
Darth Bandon was created by the developers at Bioware as a villain for the 2003 Xbox and PC video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Bandon's name was derived from the word "abandon." In the article "The 100 Greatest Things About Star Wars&hellip; Ever!", which appeared in Star Wars Insider 100, Bandon came in the twenty-second place, beating out his Sith Master Darth Malak, who came in at twenty-third place.

A picture of Darth Bandon in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide depicts him dueling the Cathar Jedi Juhani. When Abel G. Peña, who was one of the authors of the campaign guide, was asked on his official thread on Starwars.com whether or not Juhani accompanied Revan when Darth Bandon confronted the former Dark Lord, he said that it was up in the air for the moment.

Darth Bandon is referred to as a Sith Lord in the section on the Sith Order in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide. However, both his entries in the campaign guide and the Databank refer to him as a Sith apprentice. The guide Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force states that Revan killed Darth Bandon after escaping the Leviathan. However, Bandon was defeated by Revan after he found the fourth Star Map, shortly before Revan and the crew of the Ebon Hawk were captured by the Leviathan. The guide also states that Bandon died in the year 3,951 BBY, along with Darths Traya, Sion, and Nihilus. However, Bandon was killed by Revan five years before in 3,956 BBY.

The planet on which Revan battles Bandon is determined by the order in which the Star Maps&mdash;leading to the location of the Star Forge&mdash;are obtained. Bandon appears on the planet where the fourth Star Map of the journey is found. If Revan has already found three Star Maps, and for any reason returns to the site of one of the previous ones, Bandon will confront Revan. Bandon is accompanied by two hooded Dark Jedi on the desert world Tatooine or the Selkath homeworld of Manaan. If Revan encountered Bandon on the forest world Kashyyyk, he is accompanied by two Dark Jedi wearing armor. On Korriban, Bandon is accompanied by two students from the Sith Academy, the place where he was trained. If Revan found the fourth Star Map on Manaan, Bandon would tell Revan that he knew about his and Malak's search for the Map, stating that he followed the same route Revan and Malak did underwater, leading him right to the Hrakert Station.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic