Bast Castle

The secret sanctuary of the Imperial Forces' secondary commander-in-chief, Darth Vader, Bast Castle was an immense black fortress located near a beach on Vjun. His personal home, the Lord Vader often retired to Bast when not on assignment for the Emperor. Very few sentients knew of its existence and it was here in solitude that he studied the dark side and attempted to learn what he needed to heal his broken body, frequently using his personal meditation chamber located at the top of the bastion. When not delving into the dark side, the Dark Lord spent what time he had perfecting his lightsaber skills, using several variants of training droids to challenge himself. The castle also contained a droid workshop and private hangar where Vader would use his mechanical skills he picked from his time as a slave to privately work on his TIE Advanced X1 and to repair his sparring droids. Vader also tortured a Toydarian to death there once. Aside from the Dark Lord himself, the castle was occupied by a garrison of Stormtroopers who both stationed within the castle and the surrounding outposts. These troopers were assigned to protect Bast Castle while Vader was away to fulfill his commission or on another assignment for Palpatine. The citadel was not the only redoubt at the disposal of the Dark Lord, with a public palace awaiting him at the Imperial Centre, known also as Coruscant, near the Emperor's own. After the death of both sovereigns , the fortress stood alone and forgotten for years.

After the Battle of Endor, the fallen clone trooper X1 decided to forge a new empire with himself on the throne. Declaring himself a Sith Lord, he sought to attain the power of the dark side. However, he lacked the knowledge of the Sith and thus traveled to the Vjun in order to acquire a holocron located at Bast Castle. His brother X2 traveled to the fortress as well in order to stop him, but by the time he reached the surface he learned that his clone brother had departed for the volcanic world of Mustafar.

Prior to Emperor Palpatine's resurgence in yet another clone body, Bast Castle was established as the headquarters of the Dark Side Elite by the Dark Jedi Sedriss QL, whose role was built as a lesser substitute of the late Lord Vader. To honor the fortress' previous resident, Sedriss had a statue of Vader erected. Following Palpatine's return, the reborn Emperor interrogated and tortured inexperienced Ysanna Jedi in Bast Castle under the gaze of a massive statue of his old apprentice. When Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar attacked the citadel to rescue the Ysanna, it was heavily damaged in the fighting, and Vader's statue was toppled, crushing several of the Dark Jedi beneath it.

In 14 ABY, Jedi Master Kyle Katarn and Padawan Jaden Korr visited Vjun and the castle in order to try and stop the Disciples of Ragnos from draining it of its Force energy. It was then that Rosh Penin revealed that he had turned to the dark side. Prior to the encounter with Penin, Korr came across the toppled statue of Vader and jokingly told himself that somebody really hadn't liked the warlord. Korr eventually defeated Penin and killed the Kothos twins who accompanied Penin and empowered him with the Force.

Later, in 22 ABY, the Jedi historian Tionne Solusar discovered that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber had been recovered by the Sith Lord Darth Vader and stored at Bast Castle. Since an information broker had sold this information to them, she feared that others may have gotten to it first. Thinking it was just a simple trip and time for training, Tionne allowed Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, Uldir Lochett, and Ikrit to accompany her. They left on her Jemlaat-class yacht Lore Seeker.

Having arrived at Bast Castle, they discovered another vessel and feared another group had reached it first. Having survived the fortress's automated defense systems and booby traps, they discovered the lightsaber in a secret alcove. Unfortunately, a cloaked man named Orloc arrived. Orloc stole Kenobi's lightsaber and claimed to be a mage who possessed great powers.

In response, the Jedi pursued Orloc and his henchmen on a chase through Bast Castle. They managed to defeat Orloc and escape Vader's old fortress, along with Kenobi's lightsaber and the holocron of the ancient Jedi Master Asli Krimsan.

After the death of its original owner, Bast Castle became the stronghold of the Emperor's Dark Jedi. As a homage to the Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces and Dark Lord of the Sith in whose shoes he had stepped as the new Military Executor, Sedriss QL, erected a statue of Darth Vader in the middle of Bast Castle. Carved from black stone, it stood about 6 meters tall. Palpatine demanded that the image of his treacherous apprentice to be destroyed, but in an act of defiance, Sedriss overlooked the order because of his admiration for Vader's abilities.

Sedriss was eventually killed by Ood Bnar and the ownership of the castle fell to the new Executor, Xecr Nist. Palpatine ordered once again that the statue be removed, and wishing to avoid the fate of his predecessor, Nist promised that he would, though he similarly dared not tear down the idol of Darth Vader. However, before the deed could ever be done, a task force of Jedi including Luke Skywalker, Rayf Ysanna, Kam Solusar, and Empatojayos Brand attacked the stronghold. A vicious fight ensued between the four Jedi and the Dark Side Elite.

In an ironic twist, Skywalker defeated Nist and used the Force to push the enormous statue upon the remaining Dark Side Elite, killing them and winning the day for the Jedi. The statue lay broken in Bast Castle for years and the rubble was still present when Kyle Katarn and his student Jaden Korr visited the planet in an attempt to stop the Disciples of Ragnos from siphoning the Force energy. Anakin Solo and Tahiri also visited the castle during their training at the Jedi Praxeum and witnessed the remnants of the massive statue.

Bast Castle was surrounded with a complex network of manned defenses that extended several kilometers into the surrounding ravines. It was also equipped with at least one turbolaser turret. The facility also contained a number of ASP-38 Droids that were tasked with eliminating intruders though many of these were eliminated by X2.

During Jaden Korr and Kyle Katarn's mission to Vjun, a pair of TIE/sa bombers strafed a valley and entrance to the Castle. One starfighter hangar was located on the upper levels, housing two inactive TIE/LN starfighters and Vader's own TIE Advanced x1. Later in their quest they encountered several locked doors that proved impervious to lightsabers. The two Jedi passed through the Castle's extensive shield generation facility, moving through several control rooms and causing the collapse of the power column room through which gap they were able to gain access to the Upper Castle.

The Castle appeared to have an extensive garrison of stormtroopers, many equipped as rocket troopers or hazard stormtroopers, in addition to many E-Web Emplacements. From ruins found by Jaden Korr, AT-ST walkers were most likely stationed at Bast Castle at some point in time.

Early concept art for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back included a sketch by Ralph McQuarrie depicting what was to be Vader's castle.

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