Sarasu Taalon

Sarasu Taalon

Sarasu Taalon was amaleKeshiriHigh Lord of theLost Tribe of Sith around thetime following theSecond Galactic Civil War. A native of theplanet ofKesh, he sat on the Lost Tribe'sCircle of Lords by43.5 ABY. In44 ABY, Taalon led a group of elevencapital classChaseMasterfrigates, along with hisflagship, theBlack Wave, to retrieve theSith apprenticeVestara Khai and a group ofdark sideNightsisters fromDathomir.

He then entered into a feigned alliance withJediGrand MasterLuke Skywalker to confront thedark side being inthe Maw namedAbeloth. TheSith intended to betray the Jedi and force Abeloth to join them, but themission failed, as Skywalker survived the betrayal and apparentlykilled Abeloth. The alliance was repaired afterward, although they soon discovered that Abeloth had not actually died. Taalon was later killed by Vestara Khai after beginning to transform into an Abeloth-like being. As the Sith were unaware of the transformation, they subsequently saw Khai as a traitor.

Biography[]

Early life[]

ThemaleKeshiri Sarasu Taalon hailed from the remoteplanetKesh. AForce-sensitive, Taalon joined theLost Tribe of Sith on Kesh—descendants of a group ofSith that had been isolated on the world formillennia. By thetime following theSecond Galactic Civil War, Taalon had become aHigh Lord, earning him a seat on the Tribe's rulingCircle of Lords.^[1] In41 ABY, theSith Meditation SphereShip arrived on Kesh and informed the Sith there ofthe galaxy's current state—the Sith had been defeated and theJedi were growing in number and power. Ship soon after learned of ans18 light freighter en route from the planetEriadu and ordered for five Sith to accompany it in attacking thefreighter. Taalon was chosen, alongsideLadyOlaris Rhea, Rhea'sapprenticeVestara Khai, and the SithIvaar Workan andRuku Myal. Ship took the Sith offworld and attacked the freighter, forcing it to land. The Sith then embarked on a hunt for the surviving crew, breaking off into two groups—Taalon and Rhea in one, and Khai, Workan, and Myal in the other. Khai, Myal, and Workan soon killed two of the crew members, while Taalon and Rhea cornered the other four. The Sith were successful in their hunt, and Taalon called them back to the freighter to take inventory.^[3]

Ship continued to take members of the Tribe offworld, allowing them to leave Kesh for the first time in thousands ofyears and helping them form a newarmada from thevessels they captured. After two years, the Tribe's armada numbered over two dozen ships.^[4] However, the Meditation Sphere deserted the Tribe soon after, and the Sith sent astrike team, commanded by Rhea, to recover Ship andkillJediGrand MasterLuke Skywalker.^[5]

The Tribe on Kesh eventually received ahypercomm message from Vestara Khai, learning from her that the strike team had been defeated during theambush of Skywalker.^[6] She also informed them ofAbeloth—adark side entity who had managed to trick the strike team and hold them for a time onher planet inthe Maw, and who was also causing apsychosis among various Force-sensitives throughout the galaxy. Taalon was then put in command of afleet of elvenChaseMasterfrigates, including his flagship, theBlack Wave, and dispatched to recover Khai and confront Luke Skywalker and his son,Ben. The Sith planned to feign an alliance with the Jedi with the pretense of wanting to eliminate Abeloth, while they actually intended to force Abeloth to serve the Tribe and then kill the Skywalkers.^[1]

Alliance with the Jedi[]

Upon arriving inorbit aroundDathomir, where Khai had found refuge among theRaining Leaves Clan ofDathomiri Witches, a convoy led by LordViun Gaalan landed to retrieve Khai andcapture a group of dark side-wieldingNightsisters. The Nightsisters were taken to Taalon's fleet in orbit, but Gaalan wasattacked by the Skywalkers and forced to flee without Khai. Khai was captured by the Jedi and taken aboard their ship, theJade Shadow. As the Jedi left Dathomir, however, they were confronted by Taalon and his fleet of ChaseMasters. Taalon ordered the Jedi to enter a parking orbit, and, realizing that they were completely outmatched, the Skywalkers complied.^[1]

To the Jedi's surprise, Taalon proposed that they form an alliance for amission to destroy Abeloth, lying that she was using her powers to influence the Tribe's apprentices as she was with theJedi Order'sJedi Knights. The Jedi were dubious at first, but they agreed to the proposal under the circumstances that Khai remained aboard theJade Shadow. Luke Skywalker also suggested that they enlist the assistance of his friend,Lando Calrissian, in navigation of the Maw, and Taalon agreed. The allied forces then stopped at the planetKlatooine to wait for Calrissian to arrive with hisasteroid tug, theRockhound.^[1]

While on Klatooine, Taalon's second-in-command,Leeha Faal, learned of theFountain of the Ancients, a sacred and beautiful fountain ofwintrium in theDerelkoos Desert on Klatooine. Taalon was intrigued by the fountain, and was overcome with a desire for it. The Jedi discovered that the Sith were planning to betray them—learning that what Taalon had said about the Tribe's apprentices was a lie—and Skywalker suggested that they move the fleet to await Calrissian just outside the Maw. Taalon agreed, and convinced the Jedi to allow him to leave two frigates behind on Klatooine in case any problems arose. Taalon then elevated Faal toCaptain of theWinged Dagger, demoting its previous captain,Syndor, to her second-in-command, and ordered her to retrieve wintrium samples from the Fountain. She passed on her orders toVyn Holpur, captain of the other ChaseMaster that remained on Klatooine, theStarstalker, and he carried out theraid after Taalon and the rest of the fleet left thesystem.^[1]

The raid was successful, although the Sith were caught and Holpur and his crew were condemned todeath. Faal and her crew escaped the same fate by claiming that Holpur had acted of his own accord, and they returned to Taalon and the fleet outside the Maw alongside Calrissian and Jedi KnightJaina Solo. Skywalker convinced Taalon to make a brief stop atSinkhole Station—aspace station in the Maw where the Skywalkers had encountered Abeloth, and where the Tribe's strike team had attacked the Jedi—but they found the station to be completely destroyed. The allied forces then traveled straight to Abeloth's planet.^[1]

Abeloth's planet[]

Upon their arrival there, Skywalker suggested that theywalkbeyond shadows—a realm ofthe Force that consisted of locations corresponding to real locations on Abeloth's world—in order to locate Abeloth. Despite Khai's warnings against it, Taalon agreed to the plan, bringing with him Faal and Khai's father, theSith SaberGavar Khai. Once beyond shadows, they arrived at theLake of Apparitions; Luke Skywalker warned the Sith of the danger of stepping off the path, but Faal was dragged into the fatalDepths of Eternity to her death nonetheless, to Taalon's great distress. Soon afterward, after speaking with his deceased wife,Mara Jade, Skywalker decided that they needed to return to the real world instantly. Immediately after leaving the realm, they found that Vestara Khai had let the Skywalkers' friend,Dyon Stadd—a Force-sensitive who had fallen under Abeloth's influence—escape from his restraints aboard theJade Shadow, so that they could follow him to Abeloth.^[1]

Taalon chose twenty-one other Sith, including the Khais, to join the Skywalkers in the search for Abeloth. They found Stadd in a cave in a volcano where the strike team sent to recover Ship had first encountered Abeloth. He reported that Abeloth had attempted to consume his life energy, but had fled upon sensing the Sith and Jedi. Luke Skywalker led the allies down a tunnel at the back of the cave, leading them out to a courtyard. Abeloth showed herself and attempted to trick Skywalker into believing that she was actually his long-lost lover,Callista Ming, but Skywalker deduced that she had merely consumed Ming, just as she had attempted to do with Stadd. While the two conversed, the Sith began weaving acontrol web—aForce power they had learned from the captured Nightsisters—over the courtyard. Abeloth prepared to attack Skywalker when he refused to join her, and Taalon, the Skywalkers, and the Khais charged the entity.^[1]

Abeloth incapacitated Vestara Khai, and Ben Skywalker quickly left the action to tend to her. Taalon, Luke Skywalker, and Gavar Khai were all held at bay by Abeloth'sForce lightning andtelekinetic powers. She then disappeared, leaving her assailants accidentally attacking each other for a moment, before she reappeared at the far end of the courtyard. Taalon, Khai, Skywalker, and one other Sith resumed the attack, beginning to wear her down. Khai suddenly feinted a strike at Abeloth before redirecting it at Skywalker, beginning the execution of the Sith betrayal as the rest of the Sith lowered the control web onto Abeloth. Skywalker deflected Khai's blow and turned to continue dueling Abeloth while his son returned to confront the Sith Saber. Taalon and the Sith continued trying to capture Abeloth, but despite their overwhelming numbers, Luke Skywalker gained the upper hand in the battle. Abeloth finally repulsed all of her assailants with a giant telekinetic blast and fled the courtyard. The Jedi and Sith quickly recovered and followed her back up the tunnel to the cave, where Skywalker attacked and apparently killed her.^[1]

Pool of Knowledge[]

Taalon suggested that they should examine Abeloth's body to learn more about her, and the Sith and Jedi tentatively repaired their alliance in order to investigate more into Abeloth.^[1] While searchingancient ruins on the planet, Taalon and Luke Skywalker encountered theFont of Power, and the High Lord heard voices coming from the Font. Taalon also recognized the symbols on the ruins as those affiliated with theDestructors, a race in Keshiri mythology who were said to wipe out galactic civilization every few eons. Soon afterward, the allies witnessed Abeloth's dead body morph into that of Dyon Stadd, and realized that she had somehow switched bodies with him before Luke had killed her. Following a three-hour standoff, the Jedi convinced the Sith to accompany them back to their ships, where they had left Abeloth, whom they had thought was Stadd. However, they found that she had fled.^[2]

As they bean to search the planet for Abeloth, Ship returned, and the Sith lied to the Jedi that they had called the Meditation Sphere back—in reality, the vessel was under Abeloth's control. Ship convinced the Sith that they needed to visit thePool of Knowledge in order to find Abeloth, and agreed to take them there. It dropped the allies off nearby the Pool, and they split into two groups—Taalon, Gavar, and Luke in one, Vestara and Ben in the other—to find it. Vestara and Ben found the Pool first, and the apprentice called her fellow Sith to her through the Force. At the Pool of Knowledge, Ben gazed in and saw Abeloth fleeing toward their vessels, and realized that Ship's move had been a ploy to get them out of the way so that she could escape. However, the image soon after changed to show Kesh, and Gavar believed that the Jedi were trying to learn the location of their homeworld. Luke threw Gavar back with the Force to prevent him from attacking Ben, but Taalon ignored the occurrences around him—inside the Pool he saw theThrone of Balance, whereupon sat aJedi queen. Fearing that this was an omen that thisqueen could prevent the Tribe's takeover of the galaxy, Taalon demanded to know who she was. The Jedi did not answer, and instead chose that moment toattack, but Taalon dove into the Pool before they could stop him.^[2]

As he reemerged from the Pool, he was hit by Vestara, who had been sent flying backward by Ben. He punched her in fury, and Luke quickly engaged the High Lord in combat. However, the Grand Master soon used the Force to send Gavar tumbling into Taalon and Vestara, andcut off the Sith Saber'sforearm. Luke was knocked away by Force lightning, but the Jedi fled the grotto, collapsing the entrance behind them. Taalon was certain that the Jedi knew something important about the queen he had seen on the Throne in the Pool, and thus devised a plan for Vestara to learn more about her. He beat Vestara and then sent her off to find the Jedi, hoping to make it appear as though she was escaping his punishment. He and Gavar chased her back to the beach where they had left their ships, and upon their arrival there, Taalon blasted her with Force lightning. Luke suddenly opened fire on the two Sith; both dodged for cover, but two bolts clipped Taalon. He and Gavar then returned fire, and Luke retreated down the bank to find Vestara. As Taalon and Gavar moved forward, however, they came within proximity of athermal detonator planted by Luke, and the resulting explosion stalled them, allowing the Jedi to escape with Vestara in Taalon's personalshuttle, theEmiax.^[2]

Transformation and death[]

Following his dive in the Pool, Taalon began to change in appearance; he started becoming more and more like Abeloth. He lost all taste for the foodstuff normally enjoyed by the beings of the galaxy, causing him to grow weaker due to starvation. Along with Gavar, he left the world in Ship and met up with other members of the Sith armada—which had continued expanding and was now posed to begin an invasion of the galaxy. Soon, a message from Vestara came via a relay post onBoonta; she reported that the Jedi had tracked Abeloth toPydyr, amoon ofAlmania, and that she suspected they had already called for reinforcements. The Tribe decided to send Taalon, Gavar, and several other Sith to Pydyr aboard theKondo-class assault shuttleObuuri. Upon their arrival, they discovered that the moon was beset by a plague, forcing them to wearhazard suits. Taalon, meanwhile, was conflicted—he desired to learn from Abeloth what exactly he was becoming, but he needed the Jedi's help in finding her. Thus, when Gavar and Luke determined to start a fight upon meeting on Pydyr, he ordered the Sith Saber to stand down and swore to the Jedi that he would help kill Abeloth.^[2]

Taalon, Gavar, and fifty more Sith joined Luke, Ben, and Vestara, aboard theJade Shadow as they traveled to the Fallanassi village on Pydyr, with more Sith in theObuuri following them. Luke told the Sith that wearing hazard suits would not protect them from the plague—which was in actuality an illusion put forth by Abeloth via theWhite Current, the Fallanassi's perspective of the Force—reporting that Ben and Vestara had worn hazard suits, and they still showed signs of the disease; although he lied that the Jedi had a technique to resist it. Gavar was furious that Luke had not protected his daughter and began to threaten him, but Taalon cut him off, insisting that Luke was just trying to get them infected by convincing them to take off their suits. Suddenly, Ship appeared on theJade Shadow's tactical display, but Fallanassi illusions made it appear to be a full fleet of Sith meditation spheres. Taalon still claimed that the spheres were under Sith control, but as they neared, theObuuri opened fire on them. Skywalker, however, the only being present who could access the White Current and see through the illusions, piloted theJade Shadow straight into the fleet.^[2]

Soon afterward, theObuuri crashed into a cliff veiled by the White Current and was destroyed. Taalon began to demand that they land and await reinforcements, but Luke suddenly dove down to the island, and the illusion blocking it from view was broken. Upon landing at thevillage, they were met by several Fallanassi, who agreed reluctantly to help heal the Sith from the plague. However, Taalon finally realized that the plague was just an illusion, although the rest of the Sith remained unconvinced. Taalon demanded to know where Abeloth was, and he began to question the FallanassiAkanah Norand Goss Pell as three more shuttles of Sith arrived on the island as reinforcements. When Pell was not as forthcoming as Taalon wished her to be, he signaled for Gavar to holdanother Fallanassi hostage. Pell answered his next question—that Abeloth was staying among the Fallanassi because she was a Fallanassi—but when Luke asked whether that meant she had always been one, or if she had recently joined, Pell declined to reply. Taalon then signaled Gavar, and the Sith Saber killed his hostage. Pell grew angry, saying that he could not intimidate her, and drove Gavar to madness with visions in the White Current, until Vestara finally knocked him unconscious.^[2]

Pell—who was actually Abeloth in Pell's body—released the visions onto all of the Sith, save Taalon and Vestara. She then invited Taalon into a gathering hall to converse with him, but the Skywalkers and Vestara followed. Luke tried to convince the Sith High Lord that Abeloth was attempting to play the Jedi and Sith against each other, but he desired too greatly to learn what he was becoming. Taalon opened thebattle before Luke could move into the optimal position from which to attack. Luke managed to defeat Abeloth, killing Pell's body, before turning to battle Taalon and Vestara, but Abeloth suddenly returned in the form of Callista Ming. She overpowered Luke, but prevented Taalon from killing the Jedi Grand Master, expressing her desire that he suffer as much as she and Taalon did; and the High Lord agreed. She knocked Luke unconscious and Taalon trapped Ben in aForce net, and they also brought Gavar into the hall, though he remained unconscious. While conversing with Taalon, Abeloth revealed that the reason he could not eat was because mortal food could not satisfy the kind of being he had become. She then began feeding him dark energy from her tentacles.^[2]

Luke, however, finally returned to consciousness, and he caused a distraction by making the ceiling collapse. In the ensuing confusion, Vestara, whom Taalon had abused for being a mere apprentice long ago, jumped forward and killed the High Lord; she did not want to allow him to become another Abeloth, as she recognized the threat that Abeloth posed to the galaxy. The Force net around Ben disintegrated, and the Jedi fought off Abeloth, forcing her to retreat. When Vestara tried to take the Jedi captive, Luke awoke Gavar as he praised the apprentice for killing Taalon. Gavar, believing her daughter to have betrayed the Sith, began to attack, but was knocked out by Vestara. Vestara was then forced to flee with the Skywalkers, as the rest of the Sith on the planet—who had finally recovered from their visions—presumed that she had betrayed the Tribe and killed Taalon.^[2]

Personality and traits[]

Sarasu Taalon was a lavender-skinned Keshiri male who spoke with a beautiful and melodious voice. He valued power and was not afraid to let those who did not live up to his standards die. He had a predilection for things of beauty, particularlyglass. He was intrigued by wintrium, his interest piquing when he learned that the substance had properties very similar to glass. He expressed fascination and wonder upon the sight of the Fountain of the Ancients, Klatooine's largest concentration of wintrium.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Sarasu Taalon was first introduced at the end ofAaron Allston'sFate of the Jedi: Backlash, the fourth novel in theFate of the Jedi series. He was then featured prominently in the fifth and sixth novels,Fate of the Jedi: Allies, byChristie Golden, andFate of the Jedi: Vortex, byTroy Denning, respectively.

Taalon is the sixthLegacy era Sith Lord of the Lost Tribe to be named. He is also the second Keshiri Sith Lord to be identified thus far, as well as the second High Lord to be named, the first beingTakaris Yur.^[7]

Appearances[]

• "First Blood" —Star Wars Insider 125(reprinted inStar Wars Insider: The Fiction Collection Volume 1)
• Fate of the Jedi: Backlash(andaudiobook)(First appearance)
• Fate of the Jedi: Allies(andaudiobook)(First identified as Sarasu Taalon)
• Fate of the Jedi: Vortex(andaudiobook)
• Fate of the Jedi: Conviction(andaudiobook)(Mentioned only)
• Fate of the Jedi: Ascension(andaudiobook)(Mentioned only)
• Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse(andaudiobook)(Mentioned only)

Sources[]

• Galactic Architecture 101 and the History of Centerpoint Station onStarWars.com(backup link) (original link is obsolete)(Picture only)

Notes and references[]