Darth Vectivus

"He was a hardheaded business man with a keenly balanced sense of profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness."

- Lumiya

Darth Vectivus was a male Human as well as a shrewd but fair business man. The man who would become Vectivus, Dark Lord of the Sith, took over a prosperous mining colony near the planet Bimmiel. In the mine, as a latent Force-sensitive, he started feeling dark side influences inside it and began studying studied them, learning all he could from the mine before the dark energies affected his crews as well as ruined the ore, forcing him to shut the mine down. Even as a darksider and Sith Lord, taking his Sith name, his self discipline and preexisting business ethics allowed him to remain fair and balanced, without succumbing to the lure of power. Eventually, he returned to the mine and lived out a happy life with his friends and family.

As of 40 ABY, his spirit, retaining his powers, had lingered in the mine, and met a Jedi named Nelani Dinn, as a Force Phantom raised by Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya. Vectivus sent a swarm of hundreds of mynock-like creatures to greet the Jedi. After she cut down a few, Vectivus showed himself and informed her that for every creature she killed, an organism somewhere died as well. She did not believe him but he explained that all of them were Force Phantoms conjured by him and that the only way to destroy them without killing their host was to kill their master, Vectivus. She refused as she did not want to kill the innocent that Vectivus was connected to either. He changed his appearance to that of former Galactic Emperor Palpatine but she still refused to kill him. Calling her weak and not brave enough to make necessary sacrifices, he illuminated the way for her to leave. She cursed him as she turned to depart and soon the sounds of the creatures stopped.

Life
During his early years, the man who would become known as Darth Vectivus lived a normal life until he reached adulthood, eventually becoming the administrator of a mine on an asteroid near the planet Bimmiel. The inherent dark side energies of that asteroid had been enhanced by a species of dark-side wielding mynock-like creatures. He came into his power as a latent Force-sensitive at this time; he felt the energy within the asteroid and began to study it. He performed various experiments and discovered new powers in the process. After the dark side energies slowly began to drive his mining crews insane, and the grade of the ore began to decline, Vectivus quietly shut down the mine.

Ensuring that the mine would be quietly forgotten about, after learning all there was to learn from the place, the man took the name Darth Vectivus, departed, and began to quietly gather information of Sith lore through peaceful means. His previously established code of ethics prevented him from being as stereotypically violent or ambitious person as other practitioners of the dark side. Years later, Vectivus returned to the asteroid, a full-fledged Sith Lord. He built a mansion there, at the heart of the dark side energy, where he lived out the rest of his days surrounded by friends and family.

Legacy
Centuries later, the aspiring Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya moved into the remains of the mine above Vectivus's mansion. She used it as a sanctuary, where she studied Vectivus, whose spirit she had met in the asteroid, the history of the Sith, and the Force.

In 40 ABY, Lumiya took Jedi Knight Jacen Solo to Vectivus's former home to begin his journey to the dark side. Nelani Dinn and Ben Skywalker, Jedi that accompanied Jacen, became separated from the group. Nelani was swarmed by a large group of the mynock-like creatures. After cutting some of them down, they stopped attacking her and a figure appeared behind her. It congratulated her on fending off the creatures and told her that she may know him as Darth Vectivus. Vectivus told her that he was a ghost but also that he suspected that he had no acual presence at all. Dinn thought otherwise as she could feel him as a large presence of the dark side, though he informed her that the feeling did not stem from him but rather the organism he was connected to. He told her that he was actually a Force Phantom, like all of the creatures above her head, a sentient or controlled manifestation of the dark side that required a host soul to operate. If the phantom or the organism were killed, the other would die just the same way with the same wounds. He informed her that for every "mynock" she killed, a person or animal somewhere in the universe died with it. He used an example of a baby bantha dying in front of its helpless mother due to Nelani's strike and being helpless to stop it. Dinn did not believe him, though he assured her it was true, and asked him how she could get rid of him and the creatures. He told her that the only way to do it was to kill him. If she did so, the "mynocks" would disappear, not killing those who were attached, and she would be able to find both Ben and Jacen again. However, as he was a phantom, the person he was attached to would die as well and that was unacceptable to her. He dared her to do it, coming close to her and kneeling, baring his neck to give her a clean cut. Dinn refused to take the life of the innocent. Vectivus continued taunting her, trying to goad her into performing this necessary action to save thousands of lives.

Dinn continued to refuse so he changed his form to that of former Galactic Emperor Palpatine and spoke in his voice. He asked her if she could strike the man he had become down and she told him that he wouldn't if it was connected to another life. He changed back to his original form and accused her of not being strong enough to save the lives of people, unable to sacrifice one for the greater good. Dinn told him that she would gladly give her own life for a cause like that but Vectivus rebuffed it by saying that in that case she wouldn't have to face the loved ones of the sacrificed. He illuminated the way she needed to follow to rejoin her group after allowing them to make their own decisions and telling her that he did not want her to die unnecessarily but if she meddled in their affairs at her current strength, she would. Dinn told him to "Go to hell" and he speculated that he may already have but he wouldn't know. He disappeared along with the chittering of the "mynocks" above and Dinn left the chamber filled with worry for her friends' safety.

Darth Vectivus's a holocron containing his words and a detailed explaination of the the use of his Force Phantom techniques later came into the possession of the One Sith, a growing new order of Sith following the Rule of One, who gave it to Alema Rar, a Twi'lek Dark Jedi, when she visited their base. The One Sith did not approve of Lumiya's plan to turn Jacen Solo to the dark side so they ordered Alema to deliver the holocron to the newly christened Darth Caedus. Later it was revealed that the One Sith Order had determined Vectivus to be a fraud, despite possessing some unique dark side powers. The One Sith Order arrived at the asteroid, intent on destroying Vectivus's asteroid, and the dark side powers it contained, so that it would not fall into the hands of the Jedi and Galactic Alliance forces. While the One Sith was attacking the asteroid, the Alema Rar Task Force, a squad led by Jagged Fel with the sole purpose of eliminating Rar, infiltrated the mine in an attempt to killed the Twi'lek, who was using it as a hideout. After chasing her through the mines, Jagged Fel used a pair of crushgaunts to break Rar's neck, killing her. The One Sith also succeeded in their mission, detonating fission bombs on the mine, obliterating the asteroid. Though the Task Force was able to escape, Rar's body and the holocron were destroyed as well, before she could deliver it to Caedus and inform him of the new, growing Sith power in the galaxy.

Personality and Traits
The Human male who would become Darth Vectivus was a savvy businessman with a strict code of morals and ethics to keep himself in line. Due to his curiosity of the peculiar feelings his mine was giving him, he realized that he was a latent Force-sensitive. After taking the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and leaving the mine, Vectivus sought out after Sith lore and other information about the Force. That code of ethics kept him in line after he became a Dark Lord and he never captured a single system or eliminated populations of innocents, as was the stereotype for Dark Lords. However, Vectivus was a ruthless individual, willing to do whatever it took to succeed and encouraged others to do so as well. After he grew old, he created a mansion inside the mine and moved back there with his friends and family. He loved his family and was a generally happy person during this time before dying of old age sometime later.

Powers and Abilities
Little is known about the powers that Vectivus obtained during his journey through the galaxy. It is only known that he could conjure Force Phantoms at will, without the restricting and draining backlash that limited some, like Alema Rar, to only one or two Force Phantoms at a time. Instead, Vectivus was able to summon hundreds of Phantoms in tandem of each other. After his death, when he retained his powers as a Force ghost, at least to create Phantoms. In death, he also had the ability to change his shape at will and has shown the ability to levitate above the ground.

Behind the scenes
According to Leland Chee's blog Darth Vectivus's name comes from the word "invective", which has a number of definitions, including vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach; a railing accusation; vituperation, an insulting or abusive word or expression, vituperative; denunciatory, or censoriously abusive.

The The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia states that Vectivus told Jacen Solo that he was akin to a Force spirit. This is obviously an error because Jacen never met Vectivus throughout Legacy of the Force or at any other time in Star Wars canon.

Appearances

 * Betrayal
 * Exile
 * Inferno
 * Fury

Notes and references
Darth Vectivus Darth Vectivus