Azrakel

Azrakel's origins were shrouded in mystery, but it is believed that at some point Emperor Palpatine—alias Darth Sidious—conceived of a cruel experiment to determine how long it would take an unprepared mind to shatter once exposed to the full power of the dark side of the Force. When he was just a young man, Azrakel was taken in by Sidious, who, realizing his impressive Force potential, thought that he would be the perfect subject for his dark side experiment. With the aid of Kadann, the leader of the Prophets of the Dark Side, the Sith Lord began to subject Azrakel to a series of experimental methods, employing many techniques he hoped would break the young man and turn him into a mindless slave of the dark side, loyal to Sidious until the end.

Azrakel proved far more resilient than Sidious had expected, and the experiments did little to achieve their initial purpose. The Emperor grew bored and frustrated with the constant conducting of seemingly ineffectual experiments—eventually, he admitted that he would never be able to successfully shape Azrakel into the warrior he wanted him to be, and discarded the entire operation. Azrakel was left to die alone in one of Sidious's many hidden facilities, while the Emperor moved onto other matters. Before long, Azrakel's existence was forgotten by Sidious, though Kadann, one of the few others to have ever known of the existence of the experiment, saw potential in Azrakel where the Emperor did not.

Sidious's experiments had left Azrakel in a state of mental void, his mind made completely empty by the dark side. Kadann saw opportunity for exploitation, and decided to secretly train Azrakel as his apprentice, hoping to use him to further his own means, and, should a possible coup ever arise, to help him exterminate the Emperor and his apprentice, Darth Vader. Kadann slowly nursed the young man back to his full health, and began plotting how he would train him. As his mind had been left utterly devoid of thought, Kadann was able to mold Azrakel into whatever type of being he wished, and the Supreme Prophet's training under Sidious proved extremely useful in this regard. Behind the Emperor's back, Kadann began to train Azrakel as he himself had been trained, and, unlike the Emperor, was able to break through the man's resilience.

Due to his unpleasant earlier experiences with the Dark Lord of the Sith, Azrakel harbored an intense personal hatred for Sidious, which Kadann made efforts to intensify. The Supreme Prophet also taught his apprentice to hate Vader, knowing that the cyborg would be able to put a considerable dent in any attempts to seize control of the Empire on his part. After his ordeal at the hands of Palpatine, Azrakel was left with nothing more than raw hatred and anger; exploiting this was easy for Kadann, but controlling it was not, and Azrakel grew to hate Kadann as well. Nevertheless, he continued to serve under the dwarf's tutelage, learning how to utilize a rare dual bladed lightsaber, red in color, which he used without mercy on his opponents. A hard taskmaster, Kadann taught Azrakel to harness the power of the Force and use it to strengthen his own abilities. In time, he grew strong in body and in the Force, becoming Supreme Prophet Kadann's covert weapon—a tool for increasing his own power.

With his apprentice's training complete, Kadann sent Azrakel on a series of covert missions aimed to increase his power and influence, and to cripple his enemies' operations. Azrakel performed loyally and excellently, though Kadann knew of his hatred for him, and, some time before 4 ABY, Azrakel left the service of both the Empire and his master Kadann, preferring not to be under another's command.

Soon after Azrakel severed ties with the Empire, both Sidious and Vader were killed aboard the second Death Star at Endor, with the remainder of the Prophets, including Kadann, going into hiding. Although he was well hidden in his personal fortress, Kadann knew that Azrakel still held feelings of hatred toward him, which were projected galaxy-wide by the Force. Kadann, though, was not afraid, and was prepared for the inevitable clash with his former apprentice, knowing that he was far superior in terms of Force ability to Azrakel. With the three figures he had learned to hate gone, Azrakel became a wandering mercenary, operating largely out of remote areas such as the Corporate Sector, the Outer Rim Territories and even Wild Space. He hid his talents in the Force from others, becoming a mercenary with a penchant for hate-induced killing sprees. His abilities allowed him to take on virtually any contract and emerge successful, and he would kill anyone if someone offered a sufficient amount of money. He earned a reputation as a vengeful and merciless killer, with even some of his employers growing concerned with the enjoyment he displayed when killing. If any asked him of the origin of his double-bladed lightsaber, he simply told them he had stolen it from a corpse; few ever took the issue any further, knowing the likely outcome.

After a time serving as a hired killer, Azrakel began to lose his direction and focus. As Kadann seemed to have completely dropped off the radar, he turned his attention to a new target—Luke Skywalker, the son of Darth Vader. Azkarel began plotting an assassination attempt on Skywalker, though he knew full well that his passion could get him killed before he ever had an opportunity to end the Jedi Knight's life. Before he could put his plans into action, however, he was presented with an opportunity to enact his revenge on Kadann. Imperial Grand Admiral Afsheen Makati, a firm hater of the Prophets of the Dark Side, had searched Imperial Intelligence files for any sign of someone he could use to hunt down Kadann. He had found the dwarf's bitter pupil, and together they located Kadann, who had since come out into the open and declared himself Emperor. They traveled to his fortress on Scardia Station, where Azrakel slaughtered the remaining Prophets. Kadann, however, was not there, though the two had patience, and waited for their foe's arrival.

Kadann had been trapped on the moon of Yavin 4, though he escaped and returned to Scardia, hoping to find sanctuary. Azrakel and Makati were waiting, and together they killed Kadann with a torrent of laser fire. Their alliance ended soon thereafter, though, as Makati was himself killed. Azrakel soon learned that the Kadann he had murdered was an impostor, installed by Sate Pestage soon after Sidious's demise.

Acting on an anonymous tip-off, Azrakel traveled to the planet Bosthirda, where the true Prophets had been laying low and plotting galactic domination. Azrakel had stolen the glove of Darth Vader from the false Kadann, which greatly boosted his ability. He caught the Prophets by surprise and Kadann's prophecy that he would triumph over his former apprentice was proved false, as the Dark Jedi murdered a significant number of the Prophets with his lightsaber. Kadann was among those struck down by his bitter apprentice, before Azrakel was himself killed. The Prophets were not completely safe, however, as Lumiya and her apprentice Carnor Jax arrived to finish off the Prophets just moments after Azrakel's death.

Little of Azrakel's personality from his early life carried over into the Azrakel molded into a slave of the dark side by Darth Sidious and Kadann. He was a vengeful, hateful being, and spent the majority of his life hunting and killing both those who had wronged him and those whom he was paid to murder. His lust for revenge would have him track down and kill Kadann not once, but twice, and the latter of the two occurrences resulted in his death. He hated being under the command of another, and did his utmost to escape Imperial service. However, after meeting another with a similar merciless goal, Azrakel was able to work in a partnership for a time with Afsheen Makati, though it did not last once their objective had been achieved.

Azrakel cared little for the lives of others, and killed many during his time as a mercenary, for no reason other than to release some of his rage. His willingness to commit brutal murder after brutal murder, and the manner in which he did so, caused some distress among those who interacted with him, with even some of his more ruthless employers becoming disturbed by the man's actions. Azrakel did not care, though, and resorted to intimidating any who questioned his motives or actions.

Azrakel was a skilled user of the dark side, though he preferred the use of brute force when in combat, using his double-bladed lightsaber to devastating affect. He wore a suit of padded battle armor, red in color, into battle, with a dark mask that covered much of the lower portion of his face. He carried a double-bladed lightsaber, though he was not adverse to using just one of the blades produced by the weapon in combat.

Although lightsaber combat was his main tactic in battle, Azrakel was also able to employ many dark side Force-techniques taught to him by Kadann and the Emperor. Among them were Force Alter, Mind Control, Force rage, and Force sense, which, combined with his prowess with a lightsaber, made him a deadly adversary.

Azrakel was created by Bill Slavicsek and J.D. Wiker for The Dark Side Sourcebook. He was later referenced in Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals and Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties, both written by Abel G. Peña, with Daniel Wallace acting as co-author on Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals, as well as The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

• The Dark Side Sourcebook
• "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" — Star Wars Insider 66
• Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties on Hyperspace
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Jedi Academy Training Manual