Kadann

"Dark and light are illusions. There is only power and the will to use it&mdash;and the wisdom to use it appropriately."

- Kadann

Kadann was a bearded dwarf and former Jedi Knight who learned dark side techniques and came upon the Prophets of the Dark Side on the planet Dromund Kaas. Palpatine later learned of him and so appointed him Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side sometime prior to the Great Jedi Purge. However, when Kadann foresaw the death of Palpatine, the Emperor did not believe him. Kadann entered self-exile on the planet Bosthirda, where he was thought to have trained other Force-sensitives.

After the Battle of Endor, a Bimm impersonator claimed his name and power. The false Kadann used this authority to become Galactic Emperor, though he was eventually deposed by Grand Admiral Afsheen Makati, and the title was taken by Ysanne Isard.

Jedi training
During the days of the Galactic Republic, Kadann was one of the many Jedi Knights whose duty was to protect the Galaxy. Even then he was more of a thinker and philosopher than a man of action, and he strove to understand the ancient prophecies that concerned the balance of the Force. At this time, he struggled to reconcile balance with adherence to only the light side of the Force, as was the Jedi way. Soon he came to believe that both the dark and light sides were needed in equal measures to truly master and understand the Force. He then turned away from the Jedi Code and started experimenting with dark side powers.

Path of self-discovery
Though his intentions were originally good, Kadann still managed to fall onto the path of corruption while exploring the Galaxy and meditating on the dark side. While on this path of self-discovery, he soon found that he had a special connection to the dark side: it revealed secrets to him and opened his mind to the streams of time and the possible outcomes of important events. Although not all of these visions came true, they served Kadann well. He saw many paths open to him and various futures waiting for him to grasp. As he was still attempting to gain balance, he struggled to decide whether to accept these things the dark side was offering him. Doing so would be no better to him than strictly adhering to the Jedi Code. It was during this period that he met with another former Jedi trainee and soon-to-be fellow Prophet, Jedgar. The two exchanged only one sentence each: Kadann said simply, "I foresaw this meeting"; Jedgar replied, "So did I." Afterward, Jedgar became Kadann's apprentice and bodyguard, although the latter was more for show as Kadann did not need anyone to protect him. During their travels, the two came upon the Dark Force Temple on the planet Dromund Kaas, where they learned of the Dark Force religion. It was there that the two joined the Prophets of the Dark Side.

Time as Supreme Prophet


Darth Sidious soon learned of Kadann and his prophecies and was intrigued by his unique view of the Force. Thus, sometime before the fall of the Galactic Republic and the destruction of the Jedi Order, Sidious visited Kadann, and, through many long conversations and debates, Sidious revealed Kadann's true purpose: "The future you see isn't yours, you are merely the messenger. Serve me. Become my prophet. Reveal the will of the Force as you see it and I will make your predictions come true." Palpatine titled him the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side. Kadann led his small group of dark side devotees, who all had a particular talent for seeing portents and omens in the mists of the Force, into Palpatine's service, where they all gained the title of Emperor's Mage. By the time the Republic fell and the Galactic Empire was formed, the Prophets&mdash;and Kadann in particular&mdash;had become some of the Emperor's most trusted advisors. The Prophets worked in secret, hidden from the Galaxy at large, and searched the Force for signs and warnings, which they passed on to the Emperor and his adepts.

While he was serving Palpatine as part of the Secret Order of the Emperor, Kadann met with Imperial Grand Admiral Afsheen Makati. He led the Grand Admiral to a Rebel base on the planet Thila, where Kadann overheard Makati's first officer mock the glittering regalia of the Secret Order's members. This prompted Kadann to act against his usual character: he lashed out at Makati with Force lightning, advising the Grand Admiral to "Learn to rein in your subordinates, dear Admiral." It was during his tenure with Palpatine that he learned of the Dathomiri witch known as Merili on the planet Dathomir. Kadann was responsible for bringing her before Palpatine to be trained. Though he was impressed by her powerful connection to the dark side, Merili's madness disturbed Kadann, so he allowed Palpatine to assign her to be the ruler of the planet Kashyyyk after training her to be an Emperor's Eye.

Palpatine, as if in return for revealing Merili to him, involved Kadann in his experiments with the Force-sensitive Azrakel. The two attempted to break Azrakel with the full power of the dark side, although in time Palpatine became bored with the experiment and left Kadann in full control of the project. Kadann nursed Azrakel back to health and discovered that his exposure had wiped the untrained Force-sensitive's mind clean, the perfect blank slate onto which to create an apprentice of his own and a tool to use if he ever decided to move for control of the Galactic Empire. Kadann trained Azrakel as he himself had once been trained, in both the techniques of the Jedi and those he had developed on his own. Soon Azrakel became precisely what Kadann had hoped he would. He grew strong in both body and the Force, becoming a covert weapon which only Kadann could use. Kadann used the ordeal through which the Emperor had put the young Force-sensitive to make Azrakel hate both the Emperor and his apprentice, Darth Vader&mdash;Kadann's two greatest rivals. Kadann took every opportunity he could to teach Azrakel to use his hate to fuel his powers, teachings which eventually backfired when Azrakel grew to hate even his teacher and cut all ties with the Prophets as well as the Empire. This very hate later caused the death of the false Prophet Kadann.

While serving the Emperor, Kadann continued his own private studies, still contemplating the idea of balance and seeking to bring it about. Kadann had long warned the Emperor about the potential of a young boy named Luke Skywalker and, after the destruction of the first Death Star, Kadann offered a prophecy regarding the Rebellion's newest warrior: "He will destroy you." While Kadann was looking deep into the dark side prior to the Battle of Endor, he had seen myriad possibilities, the strongest of which was the return of balance to the Force and the end of the Empire. Palpatine, however, was far too arrogant and sure of his own visions to listen to the words of the dark side's primary prophet; he had seen nothing of the sort in his own meditations. Kadann decided on that day that the dark side had chosen the wrong champion, and that Palpatine would die a victim of his own ego. As the Battle of Endor drew closer, Kadann began to dissociate himself from the Emperor so as not to share his fate when the end finally arrived. "Better to serve the dark side from a distance than to be close to the explosion to come," the Supreme Prophet decided.

Self exile
Though he was not entirely sure which path the Galaxy would take after the events played out, Kadann trusted his own visions and instincts. He gathered his loyal assistants and fled Imperial Center, deciding it was time to find a new place in the galaxy where the Prophets could safely watch the unfolding events. He led the Prophets away from their old headquarters on Dromund Kaas into hiding on the planet Bosthirda where he had his own private stronghold and waited for a sign that the time was once again right for their presence to be known. Despite his exile, Kadann still managed to learn of the false prophets, and was the only power that could stop Jedgar from leaving the planet to destroy them. Meanwhile, the Prophets established an academy to provide training for those beings the Empire had once hunted into near-extinction. Kadann wanted to offer anyone with the ability to sense and manipulate the Force an alternative to training in Luke's New Jedi Order and so he sent out some of his lowest-level Prophets to spread word that there was a place for any Force-sensitives with Kadann.

Death
Kadann met his eventual death at the hands of the embittered Azrakel who, acting on the advice of an unknown patron, tracked the Prophets to Bosthirda and destroyed a number of them, including Kadann, before being put down.

The remaining Prophets believed they were safe with Azrakel's death&mdash;until Lumiya and her apprentice, Carnor Jax, too found the group's hidden retreat and finished what Azrakel had started.

Appearance
Kadann appeared to be a Human dwarf with black hair and a beard streaked with gray who wore the traditional star-covered robes of the Prophets of the Dark Side. Though he was neat, Kadann didn't fuss over his appearance in any way and he always appeared to be in complete control of himself and any given situation. Though he appeared to be roughly 40 years of age, he was in fact very old. His exact date of birth is unknown.

Personality
Kadann was an enigma. At the height of his power, he was one of the most powerful Force-sensitives around, rivaled only by Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Palpatine. Unlike either Palpatine or Darth Vader, Kadann did not flaunt his power, preferring to present himself as courteous and even friendly to other Force-users. He was always calm, reserved, and thoughtful, and, although the dark side was strong within him, he did not allow it to control his actions like so many other Dark Jedi did. He could be ruthless, but preferred to have others act for him and would often manipulate events through his pawns and other Force-users.

Kadann was not a villain to be fought but rather an opponent to be outmaneuvered. It was very rare for him to ever put on displays of his power, and he almost never stooped to using Force lightning the way the Emperor did. Although he could most probably destroy any who oppose him in a second, he usually simply left if violence was used against him. Nobody could guess his goals or motivations, as they seemed much more complicated than those of others such as the Emperor or Vader. In actuality, Kadann was known to profess the belief that both the light side and dark side had to be preserved. "One cannot exist without the other," he said on several occasions. Though to all appearances Kadann was simply one of many of the Emperor's Dark Side Adepts, he himself professed no affiliation with the Emperor. "I serve the dark side, and right now the dark side is firmly tied with the Emperor," he once said. Despite this, when he foresaw Palpatine's death, he started to distance himself from the Imperial leader.

Behind the scenes

 * Though Kadann was created for, and thus first seen in, the Jedi Prince series, he was later retconned in the unlicensed Polyhedron 103 magazine. This retcon stated that the Jedi Prince series had in fact been a children's story of the actual events told by Leia Organa Solo to her children Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin, and also stated that the real Kadann was in fact much more powerful, deadly, and fear-inspiring than the Kadann heard of in these stories. However, this retcon was later ignored in the Dark Side Sourcebook which retconned the Kadann featured in these books to have in fact been a false prophet, who simply posed as the real Kadann. Thus, an entirely new Kadann was born who has only ever been mentioned in articles rather than being featured in any stories. This article thus incorporates the old Polyhedron 103 material as being from the real Kadann while not contradicting future, more canon sources.