I am Darth Revan's heir and Darth Bane's successor. I am the doom of this New Republic and of this false empire. I will bring peace to the galaxy by ruling over it with an iron fist and iron will!
—Darth Nathemus
Darth Nathemus was a male Human who, during his life, was a Jedi Knight of the Old Jedi Order, a Dark Jedi of Darth Revan's Sith Empire and the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith. Born as Aryn Kallo on the Galactic Republic's capital world of Coruscant, Kallo was taken for training by the Jedi at a very young age and at some point became the Padawan of Jedi Master Tarla Denarys, studying under her until her death, at which point his training was taken over by Vandar Tokare. In later years, he passed the Jedi Trials and not long after became one of the many Jedi to go to war against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders.
During the war Kallo, like many of the other Jedi, fell to the lure of the Dark Side of the Force after their encountering of the True Sith Empire. After a disappearance from known space following the conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars, Revan and his best friend Malak, having become Sith Lords bearing the Darth title, led the forces who had remained with them in a second war against the Republic.
At some point during the war Revan hand-picked Kallo to be frozen in carbonite, along with a small army of Sith troopers, with plans to be reawoken at some point in the future. However, Revan was betrayed by Malak soon afterwards and the plan was completely forgotten. Kallo and his army would be left sealed in carbonite for thousands of years.
During the Galactic Civil War, four thousand years after the initiation of Revan's plan, Kallo and his army were found by the Dathomiri Nightsister Silri, who freed them after using a holocron made by Revan to indicate the location of the secret army. Kallo took the mantle of Sith Lord, calling himself Darth Nathemus and killing Silri.
At some point after his release, Nathemus encountered the Twi'lek female Alana Reya and took her as his Sith apprentice. The two then proceeded to build up their own empire and, after several decades spent steadily increasing the empire's power, they went to war with the Galactic Alliance and the Fel Empire simultaneously. The Sith, however, ultimately met defeat and Nathemus was killed during the final battle of the war.
Biography[]
Early Life and Jedi Training[]
You are strong in the Force, my young Padawan. But do not allow your power to rule you, for that is the path to the Dark Side.
—Tarla Denarys warns her Padawan, Aryn Kallo, about the lure of the Dark Side
Aryn Kallo was born approximately four millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire on the metropolitan world of Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Republic. His parents were Reyus Kallo, a wealthy and influential Coruscanti businessman, and his wife Ira, a latent Force-sensitive. Several months after his birth, Kallo's parents were visited by Jedi Master Vandar Tokare, who requested that the young Aryn be given over to the Jedi Order for training. Despite the protests of his mother, Aryn's father allowed the Jedi to take his son.
Until the age of three, Kallo was cared for by fosterers in the Jedi Order, who used the Force to tell which Initiate Clan he would be best suited to. Allocated to a Clan at three years of age, Kallo lived, studied and trained with the other members of his Clan until the age of twelve, when he was chosen to be the Padawan of the Miraluka Jedi Knight Tarla Denarys. Denarys trained Kallo in the basics of lightsaber combat and Force techniques, while also pressing upon her charge the virtues of patience, humility, mercy and forgiveness. Aryn proved to be an able Jedi, strong in the Force and skilled with a lightsaber. However, he was also impulsive and arrogant, confident that he would be a great Jedi and ascend to the rank of Grand Master. Despite his master's cautionings that such arrogance would lead to Kallo falling to the Dark Side, Aryn paid the warnings no heed.
Three years after the beginning of his training, Kallo accompanied his master on a mission to Geonosis, a rocky desert world populated by a race of sentient insectoids. The mission's objective was to capture a fugitive Dark Jedi, who had fled to Geonosis after falling to the Dark Side himself. However, the mission ended in failure. Denarys was captured by the Geonosians and taken to one of their gladiatorial arenas where, after several days of fighting, she fought against the Dark Jedi and lost. Her death prompted Kallo to return immediately to Coruscant, where the Jedi Order assigned Master Vandar to take over his training.
Following the events on Geonosis, Kallo became increasingly susceptible to feelings of anger and grief, which Vandar warned him was a path to the Dark Side. Aryn attempted to control his feelings but found that they were simply too strong for him to contain completely. Though he passed his Trials of Knighthood, Aryn was never able to achieve the emotional discipline required of the Jedi, a flaw which would have great repurcussions in later life.
The Mandalorian Wars[]
I follow you because I believe we're doing the right thing. Defending the Republic, fighting these murderers. It's justice, and that's what the Jedi do. "
" You were there with me on Cathar. You've seen what they've done. They deserve every punishment that we sentence them to.
—Aryn Kallo and Revan discuss the morality of the Mandalorian Wars
Shortly after his ascent to knighthood, Aryn began to listen to the empassioned pleas of his fellow Knight, Revan, who implored the Jedi to take action against the ever-growing threat of the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders, who had killed million, if not billions, of beings in their war of conquest. Though the High Council refused to act against the Mandalorians, a large number of Knights and Padawans, including Kallo, agreed to follow Revan in combating the Mandalorians, believing that they were acting on the Jedi principle of justice and defending the Republic. The Republic military welcomed the Jedi, though the Council condemned the move, believing that the Mandalorians were but a symptom of a greater threat that had yet to be revealed.
However, the Republic at large was grateful for the Jedi intervention, and the Revanchists found themselves hailed as heroes. At some point in the war, after the Revanchists had witnessed for themselves on the world of Cathar the willingness of the Mandalorians to commit wholesale genocide, Kallo met Revan himself. The commander asked the young Knight why he had joined the fight against the Mandalorians, to which Aryn replied that he believed they were doing the right thing by defending the Republic and killing the Mandalorians. Kallo expressed his belief that they were bringing the Mandalorians to justice, in keeping with the Jedi philosophy, a view which Revan wholeheartedly agreed with.
Battle of Onderon[]
Get in, kill the Mandalorians, get out, join the battle.
—Aryn Kallo's very brief summary of his role in Revan's battle plan
Later in the war, Revan's intelligence officers learned of the existence of a Mandalorian base on Dxun, the jungle moon of the planet Onderon, where a resistance led by Vaklu had long been fighting against the invaders. Revan, recognising the importance that a dual victory of this scale would have on the morale of both the Republic forces and the Mandalorians, drew up a plan for attack. As part of the plan, Kallo was chosen to be part of a Jedi strike force led by Master Arren Kae that would infiltrate the royal palace of Iziz, kill the Mandalorian officers holed up inside, and then join the larger battle outside.
The Jedi drop ship landed outside Iziz itself, and the ten Jedi that made up the strike team were forced to make their own way into the city. Killing the Mandalorians guarding the gate into the city, the Jedi made their way inside the walls undetected, eventually managing to enter the palace via the sewer system that ran beneath Iziz. Upon their successful infiltration of the palace, the Jedi proceeded to hide and pick off Mandalorian patrols using stealth rather than all-out combat, a strategy which proved very effective. In fact, so successful was the infiltration of the palace that all of the Jedi strike team survived, and only a few received minor injuries.
Having taken the palace, the ten Jedi struck the embattled Mandalorians from the rear. Though there were only ten of them, the surprise attack caught the Mandalorians completely off-guard and confusion reigned within their ranks. With Revan in front and Master Kae behind, the Mandalorians were forced to fight hard, and they managed to hold off the Jedi until Republic reinforcements arrived, at which point the Neo-Crusaders resistance crumbled and they fell by the dozen. The battle of Onderon ended in a resounding victory for the Republic.
Malachor V[]
Here we will crush them. Here we will end their brutality forever.
—Aryn Kallo's thoughts on cornering the Mandalorians at Malachor V
Though the war continued after Onderon, it became increasingly clear that the tide had turned irreversibly against the Mandalorians, and the Republic's forces continued to drive them back. Revan acquired the status of a living legend and he was given command over an unprecedented full third of the Republic's forces by the Senate. Though the Jedi Council still refused to commend Revan for his actions, or take action themselves, the Republic as a whole celebrated the Jedi who had gone with Revan to fight the Mandalorians, despite the Council's continued warnings that Revan was leading his followers towards the Dark Side. A few of the Revanchists themselves began to hold this view and deserted, though Kallo was not among them.
Eventually, Revan's strategies led to the Mandalorians making a final stand at Malachor V and the Republic engaging them in a huge battle. Throughout the battle, Kallo was among those Jedi and Republic troopers kept in reserve, away from the main battle. As such, they were not in as much danger as their comrades when Meetra Surik, Revan's second-in-command during the battle, ordered the detonation of the Mass Shadow Generator, an apocalyptic superweapon that destroyed Malachor V and killed thousands. So many simultaneous deaths sent immense ripples through the Force and Kallo, like the other Jedi around him, was almost knocked unconscious by them. He recovered, however, and continued to follow Revan when the commander took his portion of the Republic's forces out of the known galaxy and into the Unknown Regions.
The Sith Empire[]
My loyalties are no longer to the Jedi or to the Republic. They are to Revan.
—Aryn Kallo's thoughts after the conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars
Revan led his forces into the Unknown Regions, with nobody but his lieutenant, Alek Squinquargesimus, told why. Even though he kept them in the dark about his intentions, Revan's forces followed him and eventually came upon the true instigants of the Mandalorian Wars: the True Sith Empire. Turning completely to the Dark Side, a process which they had begun whilst fighting the Mandalorians, Revan and Alek took the mantles of Dark Lords of the Sith and both adopted the Darth title. Darth Revan and Darth Malak, now leaders of a Sith Empire of their own, took it upon themselves to train the Jedi who had remained in the ways of the Dark Side, Kallo among them. Pledging his alliegance to Revan, over either the Jedi or the Republic, Kallo abandoned his old identity as a Jedi Knight and fully gave himself to the Dark Side. One of hundreds of Dark Jedi, Kallo now prepared to fight against the Republic in a new conflict.
As the war progressed, Kallo climbed the ranks of the Dark Jedi, until he was eventually granted the title of Sith Master by Revan. While he was not the highest ranked of the Masters, his rank did place him well above the majority of the Sith forces, a power that Kallo relished.
Revan's Plan[]
Just think of it, Kallo. An entire army, hidden from the Republic, just waiting to lash out. Your army will take the Republic entirely by surprise and win us the war.
—Revan, outlining his plan to Kallo
A year after the beginning of the Jedi Civil War, Revan approached Kallo with a plan, a strategy to catch the Republic in a massive surprise attack and win the war for the Sith. Revan explained to Kallo that he, and a small army of Sith troopers, would be frozen in carbonite and hidden on a remote asteroid, sustained by an atmospheric generator that Revan had had placed on the asteroid at the onset of the war in preparation. Kallo agreed to the plan without hesitation and willingly submitted himself to the carbonite freezing process.
The plan was to reawaken Kallo and his army at a point when the Republic would be vulnerable to a surprise attack, and to this end Revan created a holocron that would lead his forces back to the asteroid and provide a method of reawakening Kallo and his forces. However, Revan had not yet told anyone about the holocron or the army when Darth Malak betrayed his master, allowing the Jedi Order to capture the Sith Lord and alter his mind. Kallo, as well as the Sith troopers that were frozen with him, would be left forgotten for thousands of years.
Reawakening[]
In 4 ABY, almost four millennia after his initial freezing, Kallo was finally reawoken by the Dathomiri Nightsister Silri, who had come across Revan's holocron during her time serving the crime lord Tyber Zann. While Zann had only been able to see the holocron in terms of its monetary value, Silri and Zann's Talortai lieutenant, Urai Fen, had recognised it as an artifact of the Dark Side. While Fen was content to follow Zann blindly and merely sell the holocron, Silri had taken the holocron and used the knowledge contained within it to find the asteroid on which Kallo was imprisoned and had awoken him. Intending for Kallo and his army to serve her, Silri immediately demanded that the Sith Master bow to her and do her bidding, a demand which Kallo replied to by drawing his lightsaber and initiating a duel. After a brief but ferocious contest, Kallo succeeded in forcing Silri into submission. The Nightsister demanded execution, and Kallo granted her wish.
After killing Silri, Kallo attempted to raise his army from their carbonite prisons, but found that all of their life support systems had gradually failed. Looking into the systems' histories, he discovered that the computer that controlled vital systems had been programmed to save the occupants of the carbonite in order of rank so that he, Kallo, would be the last to die. Over thousands of years, the computer had gradually sacrificed the Sith army in order to preserve Kallo's own life. Furthermore, Kallo learned the harrowing fact that he himself had been only days from death, and had been saved only by Silri's timely intervention. Thanking the Force for the arrival of the Nightsister, Kallo proclaimed himself the rightful Dark Lord of the Sith, and gave himself the Sith name of Darth Nathemus. He then ventured outside for the first time in thousands of years, stole the small shuttle that Silri had used to reach the asteroid, and set off into the wider galaxy.
Retraining[]
I need no master! "
" Then destroy me. "
" But you are a spirit. Another apparition. "
" Then you are not yet a Sith.
—Darth Nathemus converses with the spirits of Darth Skarl and Darth Nox, who took the new Sith Lord as their joint apprentice
Shortly after his escape from carbonite, Nathemus traveled to the ancient Sith world of Dromund Kaas, where he sensed the Dark Side strongly, and ventured into the joint tomb of Darth Skarl and Darth Nox, whom he knew from various sources to have been two of the more powerful Sith of history. Inside the tomb, Nathemus experienced visions and apparitions. These were in fact tests devised by the ancient Sith Lords with the purpose of ensuring that only the most hardened and powerful individuals could enter their tomb. Passing the tests, Nathemus arrived in the burial chamber, where Skarl and Nox's spirits appeared and immediately proclaimed themselves Nathemus' masters. Angrily rebuffing claim, Nathemus stated that he did not need a master. He was convinced otherwise, however, by Skarl's challenge to destroy his spirit. When Nathemus stated that such a thing was impossible, Nox dismissed his claim of being a Sith. Desiring to further his knowledge of the Dark Side, Nathemus begrudgingly apprenticed himself to the long-dead Sith Lords.
The spirits trained Nathemus in further Force abilities, teaching him more effective ways of calling on the Dark Side and channeling his anger and hatred into powerful attacks. Nathemus' abilities rapidly improved, especially in the technique of augmenting his physical strength through the Dark Side. Nathemus privately considered their continued tutelage a mistake on the part of the ancient Sith. He had every intention of destroying the spirits at the conclusion of his training, and Skarl and Nox were providing him with the means to the spirits' own destruction. After three years of training, Nathemus finally believed that he was ready, and during a training session lashed out at Skarl's spirit with a powerful barrage of Force lightning. Skarl, however, easily defended himself, absorbing the lightning while Nox pushed Nathemus against the opposite wall. The three Sith then engaged in a battle of Force powers, all unleashing their full arsenals. All found themselves equally matched, Nathemus' power surprising Skarl. Caught off-balance, Skarl's defences dropped and Nathemus took advantage of the opportunity to hit Skarl with a huge blast of Force lightning, destroying the spirit. Nox, however, remained composed, and it took all of Nathemus' brute strength to batter at the spirit's Force defences. Nox did finally succumb, however, and her spirit was destroyed by more Force lightning.