The origins of the Brotherhood are shrouded in mystery, but what has been revealed to us by the Krath scholars is described in this History of the Brotherhood.

In the Beginning

The Brotherhood Seal

Twenty-five millennia before the fall of the Empire at the Battle of Endor, the greatest Dark Jedi took his first steps along the Dark Path. Known only as Darth, the first Dark Jedi slew his brother in a jealous rage and was banished from the Jedi Order. Darth wandered alone in the darkness for many years. Called the Master of Our Masters, he still watches the Brotherhood as a spirit of the Dark Side itself. By the authority of Lord Darth, the Grand Masters of the Brotherhood claim their legacy and their right to govern from the Iron Throne. The First Dark Lord took three students, each of which was pivotal to the foundations of the Dark Side and the modern Brotherhood. His first Apprentice, was the enigmatic figure known only as The Wandering Apprentice. A scholar and prophet of exceptional clarity, the Wanderer guided much of the philosophical development of the Final Way. Alaiedon, the Second Apprentice of Lord Darth was the perfect warrior, skilled in the organization of grand campaigns. He expanded the Empire of the First Master into the deepest pasts of the Core. Finally, Serpentis the Silver Tongued was his Third Apprentice, brash and arrogant, he attempted to overthrow the Republic from within.

It was upon the foundations of Darth, and his disciples, a small cult of Dark Jedi fled from the fall of the Sith Empire. They followed an exiled Sith warlord of the Sith Empire who fled from Lord Marka Ragnos after he joined a failed coup to end the Dark Lord’s Reign. Known as Okemi, he was a pure-blood Sith, and believed that it was his duty to lead the forces of the Dark Side to the lost glory of the Sith. For a thousand years, he ruled his empire from a world called Antei. When he discovered the mad sorceress Taimat, the Warlord began to believe the ancient prophecies she had brought to him about the Time of Unending Darkness, the first codified lore of the Final Order, allegedly from the Wandering Apprentice himself. Finally, the Assassin Ferran was a nomad from Corellia, swift and deadly with any weapon. He trained his students in the ways of fire and steel and defended the Star Chamber and its territories from the Order of the Jedi Knights. Their Triumvirate was the most powerful alliance of Dark Jedi ever known. Together, they made significant advances towards the Consummation of the Final Order. 

Their Temple was a vast complex deep in the lush mesas of Antei. The main auditorium appeared as dark as the Void itself, a perfect model of the Galaxy, as if they discussed the future among the stars. This legendary chamber eventually became known as the Star Chamber, the name later adopted by the cult. These Dark Jedi were amicable to Darth Bane and his descendants, yet they were not formally allied with the Dark Lord of the Sith. They struck out in the Galaxy, taking followers and establishing their presence in a backwater area past the Expansion Region, far in the Outer Rim They were comfortably distanced from the old Sith Empire and the seat of the Dark Lord’s power on Korriban and Ziost There, they set themselves up to reclaim the glory lost during the Great Sith War. Their cult never numbered more than a hundred followers, some were hunted and executed by the Light Jedi, others fell prey to madness, but the goal was never far off. Small coteries of Dark Jedi were set to monitor and influence the politics of worlds in the neighboring systems, when the timing was right, the Star Chamber would exercise its influence and openly take control of their worlds. They thought they had learned the lessons of the past, and in their studies uncovered many of the central paradoxes that accompany the Dark Side. The ambition of one will always find ruin. In a grand ritual designed to harness the raw power of the stars, the Sorceress lost control of the energies she commanded. The star became an incarnation of the Dark Side itself, transformed into a massive obsidian crystal. In its shift, all life in the system was destroyed. The Scholar destroyed the Assassin and the Warlord in her fit of madness. The cult’s ambitions were shattered.

Watching From a Distance

The few surviving students fled or were killed by their brethren in the ensuing chaos. Without their leaders, they had no idea what direction they should take. Less than a dozen students were powerful enough to carry on without the Three, and following their dead Master’s, arranged themselves into three Orders, called the Tripartite Path. The most powerful among them claimed the title Lord of the Star Chamber, ruling from the same Iron Throne commanded today. This was almost a direct challenge to the Dark Lord of the Sith.

For nearly three thousand years those Dark Jedi watched events in the galaxy, biding their time, waiting for the moment when they could rule openly and herald the Final Order. When the Clone Wars ended with the birth of the New Order they felt their time had arrived. A single emissary of the Star Chamber remnants approached the young Emperor Palpatine, a Dark Lord of the Sith. Palpatine was fascinated by the cult, and realized that his Circle of Adepts would bear fitting legacy to the Star Chamber. In a secret Imperial Order, he recreated the Star Chamber as the theocracy that would eventually replace the Moffs, individual Dark Jedi and their apprentices would rule each system, reporting to their superiors, and ultimately, to Palpatine, as Lord of the Star Chamber. With the Dark Lord of the Sith claiming ascendancy, the first incarnation of the Brotherhood was born. Thought the Emperor did not claim the title of Grand Master, the consequences of his implied status in the Brotherhood are staggering. With the Star Chamber at his command, teams of Dark Jedi were sent to scour the Galaxy, hunting Jedi, purging the Empire of their seditious motives. When the final Master was destroyed, all seemed well for about five years, until the son of Darth Vader slaughtered the Emperor and his apprentice.

Grand Master Jedgar Paladin

After the smoldering ashes of the Empire cooled, only a dozen or so Dark Jedi of the Circle of Adepts were still alive, scattered across the Imperial Remnant. Our only knowledge of the seven years between the Battle of Endor, and the death of the Reborn Emperor at Byss come from the journals of Kane Vader. As the first Grand Master of the Brotherhood of Dark Jedi, Kane Vader realized the weakness of his position. Luke Skywalker soon established his own school of the Jedi arts on Yavin. The infant Brotherhood faced extinction under the waves of new Jedi. Kane Vader sought out refuge with one of the rogue Imperial factions, and a fringe element called the Warriors Guild. Dissatisfied with his place, Vader dispatched his apprentice, Master Jedgar Octavius Paladin to a nascent imperial faction on the Outer Rim, commanded by the newly promoted Grand Admiral Stefan Ronin, called the Emperor’s Hammer. The Grand Admiral recognized this boon, and offered the Jedi succor in his territories, augmenting his forces with the skilled Dark Jedi. Vader, used to ruling the Brotherhood in secret, left for parts unknown, appointing his apprentice as his successor.

Birth of a Legacy

Paladin became one of the most dynamic and influential Jedi of the Brotherhood. Two of the ancient Orders, the scholarly Krath, and the pilots of the ferocious Sith dominated. Flying missions with the Imperial fleet, they slowly pushed their reach beyond the borders of their system and the dark moon of Eos. Paladin established the Dark Council as the ruling body of the Brotherhood, his circle of advisors and administrators of the rapidly expanding organization. He inducted over a hundred new Apprentices, teaching them the ways of the Dark Side after establishing the Shadow Academy, the first school of the Dark Side in over five thousand years. As all things do, time passes. Paladin, satisfied with what the Brotherhood had achieved under his rule, departed to find his Master, and pursue his own arcane knowledge, leaving the position of Grand Master to his capable apprentice, Kreeyat Havok.

Grand Master Kreeayt Havok

Havoc had been one of the officers of the Empire when Paladin sought the alliance, and he quickly recognized the latent potential in Havok. Having served as Master At Arms and Headmaster of the Shadow Academy, Havok was familiar with the administration of the Brotherhood, but he lacked the vision to accomplish anything truly noteworthy. His reign was one of methodical expansion and refinement of their studies, with Dark Jedi establishing their own domains across the Imperial territories. He destroyed opposition without mercy, and generally reigned with marked stability. Modern scholars wonder if he saw the coming storm in his own Apprentice, a Jedi whose name has been wiped from all records of the Brotherhood.

The First Brotherhood Civil War

Duplicity, considered by many Jedi to be a profound trait, describes the reign of Havok’s successor. Through careful manipulation and deceit, he attempted to subvert the power of the Dark Brotherhood, he wasted precious resources and needlessly sacrificed dozens of our brethren for his own twisted ends. He resurrected the legacy of Ferran in the Order of the Obelisk, trained to be his personal army of deadly warriors. Yet despite this, many influential Jedi attempted to overthrow the Grand Master, and were violently put down in his mad schemes. In the end he must have foresaw his own demise, because in a final desperate act he hijacked the Imperial Dungeon Ship Lichtor V with his few followers, and fled the Imperial Territories.

The word of the Other’s actions had reached every corner of the galaxy, spurring the attention of both Grand Masters Paladin and Havok. The two former Dark Lords and a rising Master named Yoni sought to put an end to the chaos brought by the Other. They met on Eos to find a suitable candidate for Grand Master. In doing so, the three wise Jedi established themselves as the new order of the Star Chamber. They took control within the Brotherhood, finding a loyal, yet charismatic Sith to take the Brotherhood’s reigns.

This Sith, Jac Ae-Squiera Cotelin, had survived the Other’s vengeance despite being violently opposed. He led the forces of the Dark Council to hunt down the Other and his followers, eventually recapturing the Lichtor V . While the Other himself escaped, his followers were brought to justice. Empowered by the assembly of the Star Chamber, Jac Cotelin ascended to the Iron Throne. After the dark days of the Other’s Reign, Cotelin quickly reestablished order through the Brotherhood. After crushing plots by surviving disciples of the exiled Grand Master, and under the guidance of the Star Chamber, he took a step unprecedented in the Brotherhood. Realizing that he needed to solidify his base of power, and keep another revolt like the last Civil Wa, he divided the Dark Jedi into Clans. Each Clan oversaw a star system in the Imperial Territories, with the Star Chamber claiming ascendancy over all Dark Side space. Cotelin, being the first Grand Master to claim the nascent title Lord of the Star Chamber, solidified its place as the Overclan of the Brotherhood. He used its structures to create conflict amongst the Clans, both to stimulate their own strength through competition, and to keep them from uniting against him.
 

Grand Master Justinian Khyron

Eye of the Hurricane

While Lord Cotelin was universally feared and respected by the Brotherhood, his inability to divert from his studies kept him further astray from the Dark Council. Cotelin eventually stepped down to pursue his own research, and the Star Chamber chose his Apprentice, Master Justinian Khyron, as the successor. Khyron found a wave of success in the beginnings of his reign. The Jedi adapted well to the Clan structures and the Brotherhood prospered under the Dark Council’s new leadership. However, Khyron’s would find the taint of the Other still lingering. The Other had manipulated the Jedi of Clan Ar’kell into a carefully orchestrated campaign of chaos, waves of assassinations and disappearances preceeded the defection of the Clan as a whole, to a small cult in the deepest parts of the Core. Khyron knew that he must prevent another such event from crippling the Brotherhood, and commanded that Master Blazer establish the Grand Master’s Royal Guard. Blazer trained this cohort of elite warriors to unwavering devotion to the Dark Lord of the Sith, defending his person and his Dark Council from assassination attempts and kidnapping by any treacherous elements. Like so many Grand Masters, Khyron too departed for his own studies and powers.

Grand Master Stryker is one of the shortest reigning, and least remembered Grand Masters. As Khyron’s apprentice, he served in the shadow of that enigmatic and powerful figure. His reign only saw the eruption of conflict within the Clans. Khyron returned at the end of the Vendetta, again taking his place on the Iron Throne. Khyron’s second reign was one of continuing expansion and stability. Over a thousand Jedi filled the ranks of the Brotherhood, and the Super Star Destroyer Avenger was commissioned to serve as the war machine of the expansion. Having seen the conflict that erupted during Stryker’s reign, Khyron built upon the foundations of Lord Cotelin, and divided each Clan into Three Houses, each house aligned into one of the three Orders. This division stabilized the clans, and and would prevent and further uprising like those of Clan Ar’kell. Khyron demonstrated that he was still a powerful figure in the Brotherhood, his brief interlude seeming to solidfy his position. When Stryker vanished shortly thereafter, Khyron’s next apprentice was Master Thedek.

Thedek's reign was untroubled by any fell circumstances: heralding one of the most stable periods in the history of the Brotherhood. The Grand Master was a legendary organizer, and he used his talents to centralize all the Brotherhood’s records for the first time. Any Jedi with sufficient access could obtain all the information necessary to their function. Most of the records of the Krath Order were even digitized, allowing an unprecedented period of research and development among the Dark Jedi. The basis of Lord Thedek;s archival system is still used to this day, thought it has undergone several redesigns since the troubled times that immediately followed his reign.

The Darkest Nights

Grand Master Chi Long

Upon Thedek's abdication of the Iron Throne, the members of the Star Chamber were engrossed in petty infighting; these petty actions resulted in the Dark Council calling upon the Warlord of Clan Tarentum, Archibald Zoraan, to ascend the Brotherhood's seat of power, even though his service to his Clan as Consul was marked by extensive absence and neglect. His reign began with controversy, with his selection of Epis Torquemada as his Apprentice and Deputy Grand Master. This sparked warfare amongst the Clans as each tried to take advantage of the new situations, or demonstrate their loyalty to the Iron Throne. After the Dark Council had suppressed the warfare, the Grand Master retreated to his private chambers for months at a time, engaging in bizarre studies in a specially constructed observatory at the peak of the Dark Hall. When several outspoken members vanished under mysterious circumstances, and after a particularly lengthy period of absence by the Grand Master, the Clans Taldryan and Naga Sadow openly declared rebellion against the Grand Master, beginning one of the bloodiest battles in Brotherhood history. When the Emperor’s Hammer intervened, and agents of the Clans stood ready to depose the Grand Master by force, Zoraan used his abilities to destroy the Dark Hall in a violent Force Storm that raged out of control. Zoraan was presumably killed in the ensuing chaos, which left the Dark Hall, dozens of Dark Jedi, and thousands of years of historical artifacts and records in ruin.

With the Star Chamber falling to ruins, and the Emperor’s Hammer coming to power within the Brotherhood, there was a long period of time without a Grand Master. For months after Zoraan’s fall, various Jedi pursued the title of Grand Master, but it was the enigmatic Chi-Long who finally succeeded all others. The Tribune of the High Court and powerful Prophet of the Dark Side stepped forth and imposed strict order within the Clans, taking radical steps to ensure stability while the Brotherhood reconstructed itself. Under his supervision, the Dark Hall was rebuilt into a complex that better suited to the needs of the powerful organization, but at the same time, he faced difficulties with the Fleet the Brotherhood had attached itself to for so long. The Fleet Commander had tasted some of the power of the Brotherhood during the conflict of Zoraan’s reign, and his Command Staff was not ready to relinquish their influence, and actively sought to impose their own motives on the Dark Council. Like many of the former Grand Masters, Chi-Long was a long-standing and highly placed Officer in the Fleet, but after a string of Apprentices resigning, the Grand Master himself finally departed for parts unknown, the reconstruction of the Brotherhood’s power-base still incomplete. Once again, the Fleet Command Staff stepped in, bringing the Brotherhood more carefully under their control in the ensuing power vacuum.

The Second Brotherhood Civil War

The Fleet Commander thought that his grip on the Brotherhood was complete, when the Sith High Warrior, and Commander of the Avenger Task Force ascended to the Iron Throne. This warrior was known only as Firefox. Indeed, even his selection of an Apprentice, the Executive Officer Astatine, seemed to echo those sentiments, for both Firefox and Astatine were not supported by any of the former Grand Masters or the fallen Star Chamber itself. Behind the scenes however, dissention was brewing. The Fleet Commander of the Emperor’s Hammer became increasingly insular, meeting only with his Executive Officer and his closest advisors. Slowly, the Emperor’s Hammer began to decline as Astatine took control of the most minute details with Ronin’s ignorant approval. Dozens of influential and highly placed Officers resigned or disappeared, and even more were sent before the High Court for mock trials before their executions, culminating with the resignation of Lord Paladin as High Inquisitor. Lord Firefox began to assemble the necessary resources for a complete separation of the Brotherhood from the Emperor’s Hammer. For months he gave the outward appearance of total compliance to the Empire. When Astatine resigned as Deputy Grand Master under mysterious circumstances, the first glimmers of rebellion began to shine through. At the prompting of the Dark Side in strange dreams, Firefox dispatched loyal scouting patrols under the command of the Elder Dark Jedi, Trevarus Caerick to the farthest rearches of the Outer Rim Territories. This team found the remnants of the old cult, and the star that had destroyed the original leaders of the Star Chamber, still pulsing with Dark Side energy. Firefox knew that he must take the Brotherhood there, to establish themselves apart from the fallen Empire.

As he prepared for the final departure, Firefox reestablished the long dormant Star Chamber of the Brotherhood, making him one of the first Grand Masters in recent memory to exercise his title as Lord of the Star Chamber. Together with six of his most trusted advisors, including former Grand Masters Jac Cotelin, Justinian Khyron, and Chi-Long, as well as, Elders Corran Force, Pyralis and Trevarus Caerick. These Seven Jedi of the Star Chamber petitioned the Fleet Commander for an amicable release. Brimming with fury, the Fleet Commander ordered that the Brotherhood forces be held in the Imperial Territories at all costs, and threatened execution to those Officers who did not immediately resign their Status within the rebelling Brotherhood.

As the Dark Brotherhood departed, they scuttled all facilities they had left behind, while the Grand Masters shrouded the Force, denying those Jedi who had remained with the Empire access to the Dark Side for the duration of their escape. This allowed the Clans time to gather their resources and destroy remaining structures and equipment.

Of the thousands of Jedi who had once swore loyalty to the Iron Throne, only a fraction remained with the Empire, including most of Clan Alvaak.

The Circle is Complete

The Exodus was a complete success, with only minimal losses to the Dark Brotherhood. The system that the Brotherhood arrived in was far beyond anything the Empire, or the Republic before it, had ever seen. Four thousand years before, it had been the seat of the powerful Star Chamber. Two systems had almost completely merged, orbiting around a massive manifestation of the Dark Side, simply called the Dark Star. This star radiated pure darkness instead of light, and imposed a massive gravitational impact on surrounding space, extending for thousands of lightyears. This made hyperspace travel all but impossible, without the aide of the Force.

Furthermore, the return to the Brotherhood’s earliest foundations awakened something in the Jedi. Even Grand Masters found new areas of knowledge opening to them, as if the power of the Three reached across time, and opened doors in their minds. Entire new bodies of knowledge awakened specifically to each Order.

Almost as quickly though, two of the most powerful Clans of the Brotherhood went to war. Clans Arcona and Satal Keto nearly destroyed each other before the Dark Council imposed order upon the Clans, barely suppressing the Jedi of Satal Keto and their thirst for justice.

Other clans maintained peaceful relationships during their scouting forays, each laying claim to a specific system, and establishing themselves as a power in each. Even with the freedom of the Brotherhood from the Imperial Remnant and its bickering Warlords, the old ways have no died. Grand Master Firefox maintains firm rule from the Iron Throne. Warfare constantly looms on the surface.


The Ancient Enigmas

The Exodus had cost the Brotherhood dearly, for all that they had gained. Lord Firefox departed the Iron Throne for a brief foray back into the Imperial Remnant, and the New Republic to establish financial security for the Brotherhood. In his absence, something awoke beneath the wastelands of Antei’s dark Shadowlands. Workers blasting in the construction of the new Dark Hall uncovered a network of caves far below ground. The Oracle, Trevarus Caerick, dispatched one of his Apprentices to investigate. The young man returned and attempted to slay the Oracle and his Praetor. In the course of his trial, he infected the Deputy Grand Master, Jac Cotelin, and the Justicar, Keridagh Cantor. Lord Cotelin ordered the Shroud around the Antei System sealed, isolating the Dark Council from the Seven Clans.

An attack upon Clan Arcona by the forces of Clan Taldryan sparked a series of battles between the Clans. A strong alliance had been established between Clans Tarentum, Arcona, and Naga Sadow. Clan Taldryan successfully framed Clan Naga Sadow for the attack, and all seven Clans quickly fell into a bitter war while the Council remained silent and distant behind the Shroud controlled by Clan Tarentum, who would not violate the orders of the Deputy Grand Master.

A strange disease crept through the Clans. At first, it seemed part of a cult formed by Dark Jedi Master Kem-Shu Maeda, who had mysteriously appeared as a member of Clan Scholae Palatinae. This Rogue Master quickly overcame Clans Scholae Palatinae and Tarentum with the help of Pyralis. Together, they spread the strange Consciousness, as the infected was called, through the Brotherhood. A long battle was fought between the infected Dark Jedi and the sane Jedi, led by Telaris Cantor, Alanna, Shaithis, and Xanos Zorrixor. Jac Cotelin had become the focus of the spread of the Consciousness, which sought to devour the entire Brotherhood into its singular hive existence.

The grand battle was decided by the unexpected return of Lord Firefox, who quickly uncovered the true cause of the Consciousness’s return to wakefulness. Far below Antei, he discovered the husk of Okemi, the Warlord of the ancient Star Chamber. In Firefox’s absence, Okemi had awakened, and reclaimed his authority as Lord of the Star Chamber. He allowed the Consciousness to spread, as he himself was wholly consumed by it. He threatened the Brotherhood to damnation, as he had allowed the ancient Star Chamber to fall before. Firefox slew him, ending the advance of the Consciousness.

With order restored, the Dark Lord ruled for a short time, before retiring from the Iron Throne. Like so many Grand Masters before him, he resigned to further his own dark researches into the true nature of the Force. He named Jac Cotelin his successor, which was greeted enthusiastically by the Star Chamber and the Dark Council. One of the most powerful and respected Grand Masters to remain active in the Brotherhood began his second reign from the Iron Throne.

Many in the Brotherhood believe that these are the nights of the Final Order, and that soon will fall the Light Side of the Force, and the ascension of the Dark Side. All strive to enhance their position in the Brotherhood, so that when the battle between Sword and Shield concludes, they will stand as the Lords in the Empire of Unending Darkness.

 

Grand Masters Khyron, Paladin, Chi-Long and Jac Cotelin