Darth Chratis was a male Sith Lord of the reconstituted Sith Empire who served the Imperial mission during the Cold War. A brutal taskmaster, Chratis took on Eldon Ax as his Sith apprentice, and the two became pivotal figures in the events that later became known as Independent Operation Sebaddon in 3643 BBY—events that saw Chratis and the Empire's forces ally with the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic in order to confront a new droid threat on the planet Sebaddon. During the crisis, Chratis was slain by his apprentice.
Darth Chratis was preceded by his reputation as a brutal taskmaster to Sith apprentices, and his training methods were looked upon with scorn by members of the Sith Emperor's Dark Council. Nevertheless, he was allowed to continue training students, and by 3653 BBY, Chratis had taken a young Human girl named Eldon Ax as his latest protégé.
In 3643 BBY, Darth Chratis and his apprentice were granted permission to pursue the Imperial fugitive Lema Xandret, who happened to also be the biological mother of Ax. With half of an Imperial division under his command, Darth Chratis waited above the planet Krant as his apprentice, while on a mission to Hutta, obtained information leading to Xandret's redoubt on the hidden world of Sebaddon.
When Ax returned with her findings, Darth Chratis led his contingent to Sebaddon with intentions of subjugating the world in the name of the Emperor. Upon their arrival, however, the Sith bore witness to the full scope of Xandret's megalomania; her Fastbreeder combat droids were embroiled in combat with a flotilla of Republic starships under the command of Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan. Chratis' mission saw him enter into an alliance with Shan, but he was ultimately killed by his apprentice during the subsequent battle for Sebaddon.
Darth Chratis was a man with blood-red eyes that were set in a deeply wrinkled face. His knife-thin lips parted to reveal a nearly transparent tongue and needle-sharp teeth, and a decrepit voice. Chratis had hands with withered talons for nails, and his feet made the sound of crushed leaves when he walked. Darth Chratis was of the contention that his apprentices lived to serve the Emperor through him, and strove to impart that belief to them. Chratis felt that the Jedi were limited in their potential because they refused to embrace the Force in its entirety; he believed that the teachings of Jedi Masters were inherently flawed because they taught repression of oneself, as opposed to the acceptance and exploitation of one's emotions in the pursuit of greater power. To Chratis, strength was only born from conflict, and conflict was a necessity so long as enemies existed. The threat of force was often more than enough to compel others into Chratis's service.
Darth Chratis believed in the virtues of meditation and did so for at least an hour a day. The isolation Chratis experienced while sealed within his meditation sarcophagus forced the Sith Lord to rely solely on his own power for sustenance. Darth Chratis was able to summon devastating blasts of Force lightning, which he used to both destroy numerous hex droids and incapacitate the enraged Shigar Konshi. Lord Chratis supported himself by a long staff with a pointed end. However, when the need arose, Chratis' staff collapsed to half length and revealed his lightsaber concealed within, being wielded as a long-handled lightsaber. Its elongated hilt afforded the Sith Lord a significant increase in the reach of his blade. Darth Chratis could read minds, communicate telepathically, and use Force lightning.
Darth Chratis was first introduced in The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, a novel written by author Sean Williams and based on the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Like the majority of characters from the novel, which was written early in the game's development, Chratis has received no further mention in any material from The Old Republics multimedia project.
Among the eight main characters, all of whom represent player classes from "Star Wars: The Old Republic", Darth Chratis represented the Sith Inquisitor class, an Imperial class that relies mainly on ranged Force powers, rather than physical attack.
- The Essential Reader's Companion