Darth Ruin
| Darth Ruin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical Information: | |
| Homeworld: | Umbara |
| Died: | 1998 BBY, Rhen Var |
| Descriptive Information: | |
| Species: | Umbaran |
| Gender: | Male |
| Eye Color: | Yellow |
| Chronological and political information: | |
| Apprentices: | |
| Affiliation: |
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Darth Ruin, formerly known as Phanius, is an existing character in the Star Wars Legends continuity.[1]
Biography
Member of the Jedi High Council
Phanius was appointed to the Jedi High Council in 2049 BBY as Master of Academia.[2] His primary role was to oversee the redevelopment of the Jedi Archives and the training of the new generation of academics. While tensions already ran hot between the academic and warrior castes of Janis' reformed Jedi Order, Phanius did little to curb the hostilities and even stoked the flames.
He took Lysara Synder as his padawan once she came of age. Phanius immediately took a liking to the girl that bordered on obsessive.[2] While some members of the High Council rebuked him, others remained ambivalent towards his behavior, seeing it as an almost parental dynamic[2] Realizing that he and Synder shared a common love of academia, he encouraged her to pursue knowledge and act on her curiosity no matter the cost[3] Despite having a duty to safeguard the "forbidden wing" of the Temple Archives, Phanius capitalized on Synder's curiosity by asking her to retrieve the Holocron of Tulak Hord.[4] While outwardly surprised she opened the holocron depsite his instructions not to, Phanius was actually pleased, as this meant she shared his desire to study the dark side of the Force.
By the end of 2011 BBY, Phanius grew increasingly disillusioned with the Jedi Order as a whole. During his thirty years on the High Council, he developed a twisted philosophy of solipsism, which posited him alone as the center of the universe. He attempted on several occasions to convince his fellow councilors of the merits of his philosophy; however, these debated were often heated, unproductive, and always tabled. He instead took to discussing his philosophy with fellow councilor Sivu Horace in private. Horace, while vehemently opposed to Phanius' philosophy, was still willing to entertain such discussions due to his own misgivings with the state of affairs within the Order. Phanius perceived Horace's willingness to debate as a chance that he might be swayed. Around this time is also when a voice began to plague Phanius' thoughts, turning the once-pensive and solitary Jedi Master into a raving egomaniac prone to outbursts and quick to anger.
In 2010 BBY, Phanius once more engaged in debate with the High Council. It quickly turned violent. Phanius physically assaulted Horace, drew his lightsaber in the Council Chamber, and was said to have spat upon the High Consular.[5] In the days that followed, as the High Council prepared a statement declaring his formal dismissal, Phanius assembled a group of dissidents—a majority of whom were the academics he had overseen, and who felt slighted by the preferential treatment given to members of the Shield of Coruscant[6]—and departed Coruscant. Leaving alongside Phanius were his longtime friend and ally in the Republic Army, Quixis Loram and his manservants, Marlowe and Marlowe. His apprentice, Synder, boarded the shuttle at the last moment, much to his glee.[2]
A new order
Phanius remained frustrated with the Council not only over their refusal to accept his philosophy, but also due to their fear of the dark side.[2] He had attempted to organize several expeditions into Sith space over the course of the 2020s BBY, but was always denied funding. Finally having the freedom to go where he so chose, he immediately set course for Korriban.
En route, he forsook the Jedi Order completely, and declared himself the first Dark Lord of the Sith in a millennium, taking the name Darth Ruin.[notes 1] He declared the formation of a new New Sith Empire, immediately taking Synder—now "Darth Cinder"—as his Shadow Hand and instituting Loram as head of their fledgling army. Upon arriving on Korriban, Ruin and his forces settled within the ruins of an ancient Sith academy near the Valley of the Dark Lords, which they immediately began to rebuild.
Building an empire
Ruin and Cinder regularly explored Korriban in search of ancient Sith artifacts.[7] Eventually, Ruin decided to pursue the goal of reuniting the scattered Sith tribes. Meanwhile, more Jedi split off from the Order and found their way to Ruin on Korriban.
Working with Loram to plan routes through both Republic space and the Jedi Lord-dominated Hinterlands, Ruin and Cinder set about exploring former Sith strongholds.[8] A chance stop at Yavin IV led to a meeting with the Tribe of the Scattered Sun.[2] The tribe refused Ruin out of hand, but their leader, Hopel, decided to join him as an emissary. He later became the first member of Ruin's Dark Council.
Other figures found their way to Korriban during this time, including the mercenary Varsh Myrm, who Ruin put in charge of his fleet; Karlo Norith and Eddward Yaris, naval engineers who had dropped out of the Republic Flight Academy; and several hundred Force sensitives. Darth Kaos joined the fold as Ruin's spymaster, having fled Dac after a failed paramilitary operation. In 2007 BBY, Cinder left on her own search for knowledge; Ruin struggled to cope without her, often locking himself in his tower with only his Black Guards.
Beginning of the end
By 2003 BBY, Ruin had consolidated his empire. He had a trio of advisors in the form of his Dark Council, comprised of Darth Hopel, Darth Kaos, and the newly-arrived Darth Bestia, and the Sith academy burgeoned with new members each day. His military high command rapidly expanded their ranks due to growing resentment towards the "domineering Jedi" among the grunts in the Republic military.[6] Enough Jedi had left the Order by 2000 BBY that it was officially decreed Ruin had caused a schism.
However, despite the rapid string of successes, Ruin still found himself plagued by the voice in his head. He grew more withdrawn, detached, and outwardly violent toward his subjects, whom he increasingly began to view as expendable. Both the Dark Council and Cinder questioned Ruin's continued ability to rule in private as he isolated himself in his tower.
In the final days of 2000 BBY, Ruin declared open war on the Jedi Order via the holonet. He and his Dark Council fled aboard his flagship, the Solipsis, leaving Cinder behind on Korriban.[9] This was a decision he regretted, and he regularly (and violently) took out his frustration upon his crew.[10][7] After setting course for Rhen Var at the voice's behest, he began to act on his worse impulses: he drank heavily[7]; killed Darth Hopel[10]; regularly beat his squire, Eradicus; and sexually assaulted Darth Bestia[11][12].
Rhen Var excavation and death
When he arrived on Rhen Var, Ruin immediately began excavating a Sith tomb.[13] He quickly became obsessed with the project, and began to lose even his most fervent supporters as he worked his soldiers to death in the frigid conditions. Wanting to rid himself of his Dark Council, Ruin tasked Kaos with locating Cinder and bringing her to Rhen Var and Bestia with parleying with the Mandalorians.[14] Left alone with Eradicus, Ruin eventually knighted his squire as "Darth Radix" and made plans to be rid of him as well.[15]
Once the excavation was complete, Ruin encountered the entity behind the voice in his head: an ancient Sith Lord who called himself Cronos. Despite remaining bound to his tomb, Cronos began sapping Ruin's life-force in order to restore his own. As a direct result, Ruin lost his right arm after it had withered away.[16] Eventually, at Cronos' behest, he relocated to a crumbling citadel. Here, Ruin, fast aware that his end was approaching, convened a meeting with his officers and asked them to prepare to swear fealty to Darth Cinder, should she return.[17] He killed Loram after the general refused. After the meeting adjourned, he tested a mind trick on Varshy Myrm's lieutenant, Corporal Regina Orbus. The spell backfired and shattered her mind instead; in a moment of clarity, Ruin killed her and set her mangled body atop the altar in the citadel, inadvertenly supplying Cronos with enough strength to free himself from his tomb.[18]
Cinder returned, as Ruin predicted, but with her apprentice Darth Fell at her side. The three dueled in the ruins of the citadel after Ruin failed to turn Cinder and Fell against one another.[19] Though he was able to ensnare Fell via Force Stasis, Ruin could not gain the upper hand over his former apprentice, and Cinder killed him.[19]
Legacy
Contemporary
Ruin was viewed with disdain by all the surviving members of is order in early 1998 BBY.[20] In the immediate aftermath of the Sack of Korriban, while in hiding on Ossus, Darth Fell made the comment that Ruin "truly ruins everything he touches."[4]
Mandalore the Unassailable viewed Ruin as a coward after the latter sent Darth Bestia to broker an alliance in his stead.[21] Darth Kaos similarly held Ruin in contempt, and told Cinder of his intentions to usurp him.[22] Eradicus initially looked up to Ruin; however, years of physical abuse wore him thin, and he made plans to violently despose the Dark Lord.[23]
Most of Ruin's loyalists were among the lower castes of the Sith military. Their admiration was mostly fostered by Quixis Loram, who remained loyal to Ruin until the latter killed him.[17] Before his turn, the academics who studied under Phanius were also deeply loyal to the Master of Academia, and readily followed him when he left the Jedi Order.
Retrospective
Phanius was remembered by Sadiya Keldon as a prideful egomaniac even before he left the Jedi Order.[24]
Sources
References
- ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Darth_Ruin
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Umbra
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder IV
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder II
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Essential Guide to the New Sith Wars, Vol. I
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin II
- ↑ Dark Days II: Perihelion, Cinder II
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder I
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin I
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder XI
- ↑ Dark Days II: Perihelion, Bestia I
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin III
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin IV
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin IX
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin VI
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin X
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin XII
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder XX
- ↑ Dark Days II: Perihelion
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Ruin V
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Cinder VII
- ↑ Dark Days I: Zenith, Kregg X
- ↑ Besieged
Footnotes
- ↑ Ruin viewed all the Sith Lords between Darth Malgus and himself who claimed the title "Dark Lord" as pretenders.