- "But I really don't think he's a Dark Jedi. He's erratic and moody, but he doesn't have the sort of evil aura about him that I could sense in Vader and the Emperor. I think it's more likely that Master C'baoth is insane."
- ―Luke Skywalker, to R2-D2
Joruus C'baoth (pronounced /dʒo'ɹus sə'beoθ/) was an insane Dark Jedi who played an essential role in the Thrawn campaign. A clone of the Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth, who led Outbound Flight, he was created by Palpatine to perfect the cloning process of Force users. After killing the Guardian of the Imperial storehouse at Mount Tantiss on Wayland, C'baoth used his Force powers to rule over the people of Wayland.
In 9 ABY, Grand Admiral Thrawn discovered the existence of the storehouse and traveled to Wayland. He succeeded in recruiting the Dark Jedi to join him in his campaign to destroy the New Republic, promising the Empire would capture Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo and her unborn twins so that he could take them as his apprentices. In exchange, Thrawn would have made good use of his battle meditation powers. C'baoth later attempted to lure Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo to the dark side of the Force as part of a plan to seize the Empire for himself.
However, as Thrawn's plan entered its final stages, Thrawn ordered that C'baoth be imprisoned in Mount Tantiss, as he had finally realized the threat the insane clone posed to the Empire. After taking control of the Imperials left to guard him on Wayland, he was confronted by New Republic forces, including Luke Skywalker and the Force-sensitive smuggler Mara Jade. The two dueled with C'baoth, and Luke dueled with the clone C'baoth had requested to Captain Pellaeon. C'baoth, when he seemed to have lost, unleashed a Force scream, stunning everyone in the room. He began to bring the ceiling down on Mara Jade in excessive rage. However, Mara used Leia's lightsaber to cut holes in the floor so the rocks fell through, leaving her a clean path to C'baoth. After C'baoth demanded that she follow him to the cloning room, Jade refused and charged, stabbing and ultimately killing him. C'baoth's body blew up in a blast of dark side energy.
Biography[]
Creation[]
- "Created from a tissue sample, probably sometime just before the real C'baoth's death."
- ―Thrawn, explaining C'baoth's background to Gilad Pellaeon
Joruus C'baoth after his Force powers are repelled by Ysalamir.
It was believed that a tissue sample was extracted from the Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth shortly before he departed to the Unknown Regions and beyond aboard the Outbound Flight[5] in 27 BBY.[6] Kinman Doriana, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's advisor, extracted from all members of the Outbound Flight crew—including Jedi— tissue samples and blood, justifying it with the potential viruses or potential epidemics that could occur while they traveled through space. A short time after the extraction, C'baoth and his companions departed onboard Outbound Flight; however, the vessel was destroyed before it could complete its mission at the hands of a Chiss officer—Force Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, core name "Thrawn," of the Chiss Expansionary Fleet.[5] During the Clone Wars, Palpatine, using Doriana, obtained several thousand Spaarti cloning cylinders from Cartao. These were used to create a clone made from C'baoth's tissue sample.[7] This method, used to grow clones quickly, often produced mentally unstable clones, and Joruus was no exception.[4]
At one point in time, Emperor Palpatine dispatched a Guardian to the planet of Wayland to guard his hidden storehouses and goods on Mount Tantiss,[8] which contained treasures such as stolen art, a cloning facility, and a prototype of a cloaking device.[9] After the Battle of Endor and Palpatine's death, the Guardian was abandoned and grew bored over the next five years.[10] In 9 ABY,[11] he left the mountain to lead the human, myneyrsh, psadan native populations into one settlement under his authoritarian rule. Afterwards, Joruus C'baoth arrived on the planet and challenged the Guardian to a duel. C'baoth killed the Guardian and took his place, using the Force to keep the Wayland population under his rule.[10]
At some point before or after his duel with the Guardian, C'baoth received orders from the reborn Emperor Palpatine, the same orders given to all Palpatine's Dark Jedi. C'baoth was ordered to keep a low profile and await the Emperor's return. However, he violated or forgot these orders due to clone madness, and, much like Thrawn, he would serve as a distraction to shield the Emperor's growing strength.[12]
Service to Thrawn[]
- "I killed them, of course. Just as I killed the Guardian. Just as I now kill you."
- ―C'baoth, to Thrawn, before unleashing a salvo of Force lightning
C'Baoth's attack on Thrawn is repelled by Ysalamiri.
Later in 9 ABY,[7] Grand Admiral Thrawn finally tracked down the location of the Emperor's private storehouse on Wayland, intending to use the cloaking shield and the Spaarti cylinders there to pursue his war against the New Republic. However, he also believed that Palpatine had a Dark Jedi Guardian there, and was aware that such a being would be useful to his campaign; he knew that a powerful Force-sensitive could use battle meditation to increase the efficiency of his forces. Once the Imperials were in orbit of the planet, Thrawn; his second-in-command, Gilad Pellaeon; and the Admiral's Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, arrived on the surface and made their way to a village near Mount Tantiss. They were met by an old man—actually Joruus C'baoth—who informed the Imperials that he had killed the Guardian of the mountain years ago, and had taken control of the planet. He led them to a crypt in the great palace where he claimed the body of the previous Guardian lay, and then unleashed a deadly blast of Force lightning in an attempt to kill them. Only the Grand Admiral's precautionary use of ysalamiri—creatures capable of creating bubbles that could "push back" the Force— saved him from death. C'baoth, stunned that he had failed to kill them, revealed his identity to them. Thrawn managed to enlist the insane Dark Jedi into an uneasy alliance with him by promising C'baoth the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and his sister, Leia Organa Solo, as well as her yet-unborn twins, to be his to mold however he desired. C'baoth planned to create an army of Dark Jedi, which he would use to conquer the galaxy. Skywalker, his sister, and the Solo children would be the first of his Jedi. Pellaeon was uneasy about this arrangement, but Thrawn regarded C'baoth as little threat due to his insanity hindering his long-term control.[1][9]
C'baoth served Thrawn in several battles, increasing the efficiency of the Imperial forces by 40%. He also achieved one of his main goals, the capture of Luke Skywalker, when the Jedi came to him on Jomark. At the First Battle of Nomad City earlier in the campaign, C'baoth had felt Skywalker's presence, and sent a message to the Jedi: Skywalker would come to him.[1] At the same time, Imperial forces began spreading the rumor that a Jedi was on Jomark. C'baoth headed there and took up residence in High Castle, immediately establishing his dominance over the people there. Though Skywalker was skeptical that a Jedi had not only survived the Great Jedi Purge, but not aided the Rebel Alliance, or even revealed himself after Palpatine's death, he eventually went to Jomark. There, he met C'baoth, who proclaimed himself to be a Jedi Master. He began training Skywalker, teaching him many things contrary to what Yoda, Skywalker's former teacher, had taught the young Jedi. C'baoth taught Skywalker that Jedi were superior to others, and should use their power to govern inferiors, though the insane clone did also feel that stopping murders was important. He also taught him that Jedi should use force and pain as teachers to keep non Force-sensitives under control.[4] All this went against what the Jedi had taught for millennia prior to the fall of the Jedi Order.[13] Skywalker recognized that C'baoth was insane and also a practitioner of the dark side of the Force, and attempted to cure him and turn him back to the light. However, he found that C'baoth's madness was too great a hurdle to overcome.[14]
Joruus C'baoth, Dark Jedi
After a time, C'baoth revealed to Skywalker that he had sensed another being skilled in the Force, someone whom Skywalker had met: the smuggler and former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade. C'baoth believed that she, like Skywalker, would become his apprentice—he had foreseen her kneeling before him in a vision. Several days later, Jade landed on Jomark, begging for Skywalker's help to free her boss Talon Karrde, who had been imprisoned by the Empire. C'baoth attempted to kill her by hurling boulders at her starship through the Force, but she managed to land nonetheless. The Dark Jedi confronted her, but through the use of a ysalamir, as well as help from R2-D2, Skywalker's astromech droid, saved Jade's life. C'baoth was wounded when R2, in Skywalker's X-wing, fired on him, though the droid did not kill him on orders from Skywalker. Sensing the dark side in C'baoth, Skywalker departed with Jade.[4]
C'baoth later left Jomark in a fury, taking control of the minds of those aboard a Lancer-class frigate and ordering them to take him to the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, Thrawn's flagship. Once there, he confronted Thrawn, asking why he had not yet been given "his" Jedi. Thrawn retorted by asking why Skywalker had been allowed to leave. The Dark Jedi began to believe himself to be head of the Empire, a belief Thrawn knew had to be changed soon.[2] Thrawn then promised the Dark Jedi that he would soon have Leia Organa Solo and her newborn children, Jacen and Jaina, as he was already assembling a team to infiltrate the Imperial Palace and kidnap them. C'baoth relented, but was still unhappy. Later, he used his Force powers to control the mind of Gilad Pellaeon, and had him place an order for a special clone, then ordered him to forget the incident.[4]
Though Thrawn was losing his patience for C'baoth's antics, he still relied on him, knowing his battle meditation ability was indispensable. The Dark Jedi was later used at the assault on Ukio, one of the most important battles of the Thrawn campaign. Several Imperial cruisers, invisible thanks to a cloaking device, sneaked under the planetary shield, and then prepared to fire, while a group of Star Destroyers waited outside the shield. Aboard one of them was C'baoth. When Thrawn gave the order, C'baoth sent a mental command to the other ships under the shield, at which point they fired down on the planet. As the people on the surface could not see the ships that were actually firing, they believed Thrawn had developed a weapon fitted on a Star Destroyer that could penetrate planetary shields. Rumor of this swept throughout the galaxy, striking fear into the hearts of many loyal to the New Republic.[2]
C'baoth later learned that Thrawn's team had failed to capture Organa Solo and her children. Tired of what he perceived as empty promises from Thrawn, he took control of the minds of everyone aboard the Chimaera save for those in the ysalamir Force-bubble, and threatened to make them take the ship to Coruscant. However, powerful as he was, controlling the minds of thousands of individuals for several days was beyond him, and he was forced to drop his control. Unknown to any of the Imperials, however, was the fact that Mara Jade, upon learning of Thrawn's clone soldiers, revealed that he was likely using the facility on Wayland. She agreed to lead Skywalker, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca there. Around this time, C'baoth's madness became even more evident, as he frequently exploded in anger at Thrawn, often about "his" Jedi, but he would quickly calm down.[2]
Showdown on Wayland[]
- "So at last you have come to me. I knew you would. Together we will teach the galaxy what it means to serve the Jedi."
- ―C'baoth, to Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker
C'baoth's Force scream causes the ceiling to collapse.
Unknown to any of the five heading to Wayland, C'baoth was in Mount Tantiss, imprisoned in the royal chambers by Thrawn due to his realization that the clone was too powerful, power-hungry, and unstable to be safely used any longer. However, C'baoth had outsmarted Thrawn. He had realized that if he could take over the minds of the soldiers and crew members used as cloning templates, he could mentally command every clone created from them. This would allow him to personally command a huge section of the Imperial forces.[2] As there were only approximately twenty templates, he believed he could easily shape their minds, and in turn, their clones.[10]
He had first tried this mind control technique on the way to Wayland, where he was in a shuttle along with the Imperial General Freja Covell. C'baoth took control of his mind, altering it. Covell became completely loyal to C'baoth, forgetting his earlier orders from Thrawn. However, when the shuttle entered the Force-free zone caused by the thousands of ysalamiri in the mountain, Covell was shaken by the loss of C'baoth's presence, and his mind was severely damaged. Without the Force, the Dark Jedi was unable to maintain control of Covell, and the General suffered, his brain critically damaged. Covell was changed, although C'baoth had not finished "shaping" his mind.[10]
Having realized how to shape other's minds now, C'baoth ordered Covell to, in turn, order his troops to place explosives on the thousands of ysalamir in the fortress, and then incite the beings on Wayland to attack the base outside. Covell died a short while later, after having C'baoth placed in charge of the facility. Grand Admiral Thrawn later found out about this by contacting C'baoth.[2]
When Jade and Skywalker arrived in the throne room searching for a self-destruct switch, C'baoth revealed himself to them. He attempted to turn them to the dark side, but when they refused, he activated the remote switch that triggered the explosives. When they were detonated, the ysalamiri were killed, restoring the presence of the Force to the mountain. He then showed them his secret weapon—the clone he had ordered Pellaeon to have made weeks ago. It was a clone of Luke Skywalker, created from tissue from Skywalker's right hand, which had been cut off by Darth Vader during the Duel on Cloud City, and later recovered by Imperial forces. The clone, Luuke Skywalker, was armed with Skywalker's old lightsaber, which had also been recovered on Cloud City. Skywalker and Jade dueled the clone, with Mara Jade eventually killing him.[2]
Mara Jade stabs C'baoth, killing him.
At this time, Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, and Talon Karrde entered the throne room. C'baoth unleashed a Force scream, stunning everyone in the room. In a rage, he began to bring the ceiling down on Mara Jade. However, Jade used Leia's lightsaber to cut holes in the floor so that the rocks fell through, leaving her a clear path to C'baoth. C'baoth demanded Jade follow him to the cloning room, where he would make a clone of her.[2]
Mara Jade defiantly refused and charged towards C'baoth, guided mentally by Organa Solo, and aided with a distraction by Luke sending Karrde's pet Vornskr's to attack him. When she reached the insane Jedi, she stabbed him with the lightsaber. He exploded in a blast of dark side energy. In the cloning chambers, Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca set detonators to destroy the mountain after the victorious Rebels fled.[2]
Legacy[]
After freeing Wayland from C'baoth's control, the New Republic began to investigate the history of Wayland. Conversing with the Myneyrsh and Psadan populations, the researchers heard tales of C'baoth's overtaking the original Guardian. These accounts could not be independently verified and were doubted by the historical community to the point of being considered myths, however. An alternate theory held that C'baoth and the Guardian were actually the same man.[10]
Ten years after C'baoth's death, his memory still induced fear in those who had witnessed his madness. During the Caamas Document Crisis, while debating whether the "Grand Admiral Thrawn" who had confronted Lando Calrissian aboard the Star Destroyer Relentless might have been a clone of the original Thrawn, Shada D'ukal darkly suggested to Talon Karrde that if the Imperial Remnant had managed to grow one clone of Thrawn, it could just as easily have grown fifty, or even a hundred clones of C'baoth.[15]
C’baoth’s use of Battle Mediation disturbed Luke Skywalker, such that the son of Anakin was suspicious of the ability for almost two decades afterwards.[16]
Personality and traits[]
- "You don't understand power, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Conquering worlds you'll never even visit isn't power. Neither is destroying ships and people and rebellions you haven't looked at face-to-face."
- ―Joruus C'baoth
Joruus C'baoth unleashes his force lightning.
Joruus C'baoth had many traits of the original Jorus C'baoth. Like the Jedi Master,[5] the clone was very arrogant, believing that being a Jedi automatically granted one superiority over others. He thought that his Force-sensitivity gave him the right to rule others and judge them, and that non-Force sensitives were weak and incapable of independent thought.[4] C'baoth was also overconfident, believing he was capable of performing almost any task through the power of the Force. However, he was also insane, caused by the unstable process of cloning using Spaarti cylinders. His madness showed towards the end of the Thrawn campaign, when he shifted personalities quickly, going from being furious at Thrawn to quiet and apologetic. He was very stubborn, but Thrawn was able to convince him of many things through reasoning and promises that soon things would go C'baoth's way.[2] C'baoth had a very firm belief that Thrawn was mistaken in his definition of power, believing that power was not ruling worlds, but rather individual people, and knowing those people, knowing you had control over them. Moreover, he felt that only he had the right to punish the people he controlled even if they gave offense or violence to another.[1] In the last weeks of his life, he changed his mind, declaring himself the de jure ruler of the Empire but “allowing” (being unable to take away) Thrawn to retain practical leadership. He “permitted” others to say they really served Thrawn and found the whole situation rather funny. The copy of a Jedi felt that it was his total right to direct fleets to capture the Jedi who he wanted to turn into his minions. His clone madness meant that when talking about Leia, C’baoth would become very calm, placidly arguing that she wanted to let him train her children and honestly thought that she would be murdered by the New Republic for her powers.[2]
C'baoth's strong personality led him to ignore Thrawn's orders, something Gilad Pellaeon feared when they first met him on Wayland. Thrawn was confident he could control C'baoth with the ysalamiri and carefully calculated orders until he no longer needed him. However, Thrawn underestimated C'baoth, who later rebelled against him, attempting to take control for himself.[1] He suffered from severe memory issues and often would forget important information, the events of battle, his own background and nature, and even what he was doing. At one point he even interpreted the killing of the Guardian of Tantis as an act of defiance against the Sith as a post-Order 66 Jedi.[17][4] He hated Ysalamiri being used to keep him from using the Force wherever he wished and despised how, in his opinion, the Imperials who made him fight for him often insulted him, mocking him into going deeper and more intensely into straining himself to do wonderous feats of power, but still did not respect him as an all-wise lord. As such, when the ship he was on was hit, he mind-controlled the crew to strike back, even though he was ordered to focus on the wider battle. Though he hurt himself doing this hard feat, he also found it very enjoyable. He sometimes used the Force for trivial tasks, like getting dressed more quickly, though he found it very hard to focus enough to think long-term or to use the Force for complex tasks. C’Baoth’s mood swings, interruptions, and random changes of topic in his first meeting with Luke, as well as his abrasive style and lack of Yoda-like dignity, put the young Skywalker ill-at ease. Despite his cold and proud style, he did accept that death of old age was natural an assurance for him and agreed with Luke that murders should be stopped by Jedi. While he was insane, the clone did at times have flickers of a desire to improve the lives and harken back to the glory and justice of the Republic, but in his view even this had to be through the lens Jedi being dominating over the “primitives” that he saw all those who could not use the Force to be. His “memories” of the fall of the Jedi in particular soured him towards the rest of galaxy, assuming that everyone not a Jedi hated them. Moreover, C’Baoth would preached against the dark side, oblivious to his own corruption. His ideology, Luke felt, was contradictory in saying the Jedi were both hated and also the teachers of the galaxy. When Luke was taken, C’baoth became even more power-hungry, proclaiming himself an equal to Thrawn in authority and unilaterally saying that he was going to be taking command of Mount Tantis in order to assure that he was given what he wanted. Additionally, he wanted to restore the rule of the “Jedi” with himself as the galactic ruler.[4]
When guiding ships to war, C'baoth sometimes had braziers of incense burning near himself.[18] He also often smoothed out his beard when thinking.[2][4]
Given that the Great Jedi Purge had destroyed most records relating to the Jedi and the planet Wayland itself was a carefully hidden secret, few knew that Joruus C'baoth was a clone. In fact, Thrawn was only aware of this fact because he had been present at the destruction of Outbound Flight and the death of the real Jorus C'baoth.[5] The irony of this concealed fact is that through years of isolation and deteriorating sanity, even Joruus C'baoth forgot his true origins and believed himself to be the original Jorus C'baoth.[2][4]
Powers and abilities[]
- "I serve no Emperor. My power is for myself alone."
- ―C'baoth
C'baoth was very skilled with Force lightning.
Like Jorus C'baoth, the clone was very strong in the Force, capable of using many Force powers; he was, in Luke Skywalker's opinion, just as dangerous as Darth Vader.[10] Skywalker also viewed him as much stronger than he had been during the time of the Rebellion. The dark Jedi assumed if both he and Skywalker joined forces they could archive great things. The clone killed one thousand people who came to his planet Wayland during his reign.[4] C’baoth was powerful enough to kill his predecessor, which was the last time he had to bother severely exerting himself until he was called up to guide the Empire’s fleets, though directly controlling the minds of soldiers as puppets was even harder. He also argued that he could destroy a woman in a Ysalamir bubble and that maybe he was more wise than Darth Sidious. Still he was unwilling to risk a fight without provocation against Jade while she was protected and when surprised by R2-D2, knocked unconscious by an X-wing shooting him. In the wake of Mara Jade extracting Luke from him, C’baoth told Thrawn that he had become stronger in the Force than he had been before their meeting and that the Force was his servant.[4] He was skilled in the art of battle meditation and used it to command Thrawn's forces and coordinate attacks, this being the power that the Grand Admiral shought him out for. Regarding his battle meditation that he used to guide fleets from across the stars, he could augment Thrawn's forces by about 40% effectiveness. In this particular instance the Jedi Master was guiding three fleets (including one hitting Bpfassh), the one he was with and two others that were around four light-years away. The clone admitted that he could not find out exactly what the New Republic units facing his allies were, but he was able to know enough from the Imperials’ minds that they were not endangered.[1] Doing this war coordination sometimes caused him to float.[18] Two months after he joined Thrawn, he had developed his self-mastery and could use battle meditation to direct ships and locate them almost without issues, though focusing on the very exact location of ships did strain him. C’Baoth while he was doing this during the battle of Battle at Ukio was able to make the crews of two cloaked cruisers fire so that it looked like the Chimera could shoot through Ukio’s shields, horrifying the planet’s people into surrendering, then relocating the ships to where Thrawn said they would not crash when drop ships landed. This split-second reaction and command at Ukio, so clear and fast, Captain Pellaeon wondered, might have been due to how there were only about twenty sorts of minds among the clones who comprised the crews he commanded and/or because C’baoth was himself a clone. The clone threw his full focus and directed the fleet at Filve to abandon the battle and rush after Leia Organa Solo. The power of his battle meditation was something that Organa Solo herself sensed, so she knew that something was going on beyond mere physical warfare, though she tried to ignore that fact.[2]
He was able to use Force lightning, which he shot several bolts of to try and kill Thrawn and his followers when they first met (the attack failed due to the Ysalamir the Imperial party carried) and frequently utilized it to punish those whom he felt had disobeyed him, such as the people he ruled on Jomark and Wayland.[1][4] When Mara Jade came to collect Luke, the insane clone shot lightning at both Jedi and smuggler, though they used a lightsaber and the Force void from the Ysalamir to resist.[4] The dark Jedi also could emit twisting white lightning from his hands in multiple directions including behind himself.[19]
He could also move things with the Force, such as tearing a rock to parry a blaster bolt aimed at one of his minions, when Rukh tried to execute the man.[1] On Jomark, C'baoth used the Force to pull his robe to himself. When Mara Jade flew down to extract Luke, the clone telekinetically flung four small stones that battered her Skipray into a gliding-crash. Jade assumed that he could have destroyed the ship with more mind-flung rocks if he had been less lazy. He disarmed Jade by throwing a rock at her gun-hand using the momentum of the stone to overcome the Force void, then began to fling more stones at Luke and Mara.[4] He turned a comms system off with a handwave, once.[2] The dark clone of a Jedi Master could do things like choking out his foes.[10] In fits of rage, he also had the ability to use Force screams, a sonic attack that could crumble structures.[2]
However, the C'baoth clone's preferred ability was that of bending the minds of others. By straining himself such that he had headaches after, he was able to take control over gunnery crews and make them shoot at a ship he found offensive. He even willed Luke Skywalker to walk away from him.[4] The clone mentally forced Pellaeon to send an order to Mount Tantiss to create Luuke Skywalker, then took away the officer’s memory of the incident. He also had the power to take total control of other's minds, and literally reshape them in his own image, an extremely difficult feat. When he did this to General Covell, the Imperial died without the connection after they entered the Force null zone of Ysalamir on Wayland. The clone made a man freeze in mental trauma at fifteen minutes away from spaceship docking, disastrously forestalling Thrawn’s departure for the battle for the Katana fleet, while aboard a Lancer-class starship whose crew he had, Thrawn speculated mentally twisted to his service. Thrawn suggested that this implied that C’baoth could mind-control people who were light-years away. Just before his return back to his homeworld, he once took total domination over the minds of the thirty-seven thousand beings serving on the Chimaera. Later, he used his abilities to control the Imperials left at Mount Tantiss to guard him.[2] He could look into the future slightly for battle information and to be aware of dangers.[10] Moreover, the cloned Force user foresaw a range of possible endings for the campaign he fought in.[2] During his first meeting with Thrawn, he saw in some smoke rising from a brazier a vision of Luke and Leia, standing back-to-back with lightsabers drawn.[20] However, he admitted that he could not foresee all, such as when he objected to having to help Thrawn’s fleets often with his Battle Meditation on the grounds that Luke Skywalker might show up on Jomark when he was not there. He also knew when Luke was coming to meet him when the young Jedi dropped out hyperspace over Jomark. He also could block out his own feelings from Luke’s effort to read his mind, such that Luke was completely unable to get a sense of his thoughts.[4] C’baoth in turn, however, imposed tiredness upon Luke’s body and mind, keeping the Jedi Knight as tired as he had been after being tortured by Sidious, unable to focus or think as he should have been able to and so vulnerable to the dark Jedi’s teachings and manipulative behavior. He could also impose sleepiness on a target flying low over the town he was in. Another power he claimed to use, that he alleged to be a mark of his worthiness, was leaning on the Force for guidance. C’baoth also was able to look far into the sky when he felt that Mara Jade was flying to where he was keeping Luke, whereupon he tried to make her go to sleep. Some of his other aspects of the might of his mind included the power to sense the world around him, such as how on Jomark he felt the flicker of the Force that was an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit,[21] then later awoke from sleep to perceive something and sending his mind questing down a mountain to detect a messenger then later empathically feeling and approving of the man's servile mental state, and also twice felt when a murder was about to happen, when he sensed the life story and level of power of Mara Jade (including whenever she disconnected and reconnected with her Force powers) and this was sometimes seen during his Jedi meditations,[4] enhance his memory recall, detect life near him and even who it was, pick up others' thoughts[10]--like how Luke Skywalker wondered (and indeed it was so) if the fallen clone Jedi Master was reading his mind during their first meeting on Jomark and when he read Mara Jade's mind when she was flying her ship towards him on Jomark, and Thrawn speculated maybe stole knowledge from a man from across a fifteen minute ship flight gap, much like how he took of Pellaeon elements of the Captain’s thoughts[4][2]--and send his own to others such as when he summoned Luke from across the stars, such as he did at the Battle of Nkllon.[1] Thrawn noted that after Luke Skywalker escaped the clone, C’baoth showed that he could send telepathic messages to non-Force-sensitives from light years away.[4] C’Baoth casually harassed Pellaeon with his mind, encouraging him to rush to talk to him and again using Force empathy to know the Captain’s personal feelings. The Jedi Master read the minds of his supposed minions with casual ease and stole their memories, but doing this did take an active effort and he could not read minds while distracted. By locking onto the minds of men, C’baoth could pick out cloaked spaceships in the same starsystem. Moments after the battle of Ukio, the Jedi clone felt that Leia Organa Solo was at Filve.[2]
C'baoth had some considerably powerful Force barriers at his disposal. When he had been shot from behind by Luke Skywalker's X-wing, he managed (though being knocked out by the shockwave) to protect himself and survive without any singes on his person, a feat that impressed Mara Jade.[4] He even conjured up a shield for protection from the debris he had caused to fall only moments earlier in his dueling sanctum.[22] He also was able to use the Force to absorb energy.[10]
The Dark Jedi was able use the Force to project his voice, but once Luke was not certain if that was just a trick of the room’s architecture. Later, on the Chimera’s bridge, the insane clone indeed applied the Force in this manner. At one point his eyes glowed as with flames.[4] This phenomenon occurred again just before the battle of Ukio and again his eyes burned in anger while demanding that Thrawn attack the New Republic so as to capture/“save” Leia, in conjunction with more Force-augmented yelling.[2] The dark Jedi also, while demanding that there be an assault on Coruscant, evoked blue light behind himself.[23] C'baoth had a range of powers at his disposal to dull pain or injuries and heal faster, improve his senses and his body's capabilities, endure being stunned and remove poisons in himself, go into trances to hibernate, augment his skills as a swordsman, and empty his mind for better meditation. He was also a good archer.[10]
Behind the scenes[]
- "The other big thing from the outline was the clone Joruus C'baoth was going to be an insane clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi. That would have been interesting, just the emotional connection made when Luke is dealing with him. Is this the Obi-Wan I knew, or is it somebody else? They didn't want to do that."
- ―Timothy Zahn on his original concept for Joruus C'baoth.
Concept art for Joruus C'baoth.
The character of Joruus C'baoth was created for the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, the first book in the Thrawn Trilogy.[1] According to author Timothy Zahn, Joruus C'baoth was originally supposed to be a mad clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi that survived the Clone Wars, but Zahn was forced to change the character's origin when Lucasfilm objected. He then created a new character—Jorus C'baoth—and his clone.[25] Jorus C'baoth's background, along with that of the Outbound Flight project, was later expanded on in the 2004 novel Survivor's Quest and the 2006 novel Outbound Flight, both also written by Zahn.[26][5]
In sources expanding upon Wayland's history, doubt was cast in-universe on whether or not Joruus C'baoth actually killed any Guardian. The alternative theory posited by those sources was that the two were one and the same. This ambiguity persisted in materials released long after the original novels, appearing in C'baoth's Databank entry. It was not until 2008 and the release of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia that it was objectively established that the Mount Tantiss settlement had been controlled by two, separate regimes. Because of this long-maintained uncertainty, it was not unreasonable to believe C'baoth when he told Thrawn that he had ruled Wayland for some time, but The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook (1996) established that it took five years without Imperial contact for the original Guardian—written as C'baoth being the same man—to leave Mount Tantiss. This placed that event in the same year, 9 ABY,[7] as the Thrawn campaign documented by the Thrawn Trilogy, meaning that C'baoth's term as leader after killing the original was actually quite short.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 Heir to the Empire
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 The Last Command
- ↑ The Essential Guide to Characters
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 Dark Force Rising
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Outbound Flight
- ↑ The Essential Reader's Companion
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The New Essential Chronology
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II ("Mount Tantiss") This entry established definitively that C'baoth and the guardian were separate entities.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Star Wars Encyclopedia
- ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook
- ↑ The New Essential Chronology places the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY and The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook states that the Guardian established his kingdom five years after this.
- ↑ Dark Empire Sourcebook
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- ↑ Specter of the Past
- ↑ The New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Heir to the Empire 2
- ↑ 1996 Topps Star Wars Finest
- ↑ Heir to the Empire 1
- ↑ Dark Force Rising 1
- ↑ The Last Command 6
- ↑ The Last Command 1
- ↑ Inside the re-birth of Star Wars and the creation of Thrawn with Timothy Zahn by Joshua Lapin-Bertone on www.thepopverse.com (April 8, 2023) (archived from the original on March 31, 2023)
- ↑
"From Heir to Last Command" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 1
- ↑ Survivor's Quest