Drowl

A Human male, Drowl was a Sith Lord who served the Sith Empire by the time of the Cold War, a period of unrest between the Empire and the Galactic Republic. Drowl was frequently utilized by the Dark Council—the ruling body of Sith who led the Empire—to destroy slave revolts on planets that the Empire had already conquered. Despite evidence from previous trials showing that increased suffering did not cause rebellions to surrender any faster, Drowl preferred to cause as much suffering as possible when quelling rebellions. During his work, Drowl had an assistant, Sergeant Slarin, who believed that the Sith Lord placed his desire to cause prolonged suffering over ending the rebellions, which used a greater amount of time and resources than more efficient methods. The sergeant believed that Drowl's inefficiencies had reflected poorly on his career and had prevented him from being promoted to the rank of captain. Around the year 3643 BBY, the Sith Lord was assigned to bring down a rebellion on Dromund Kaas, the capital world of the Sith Empire. The rebels started their revolt in the jungle outside of the capital, Kaas City, at the construction site of a giant, unfinished statue of a Dark Council member named Darth Vowrawn that was commissioned by his apprentice, Lord Qet.

While examining the site of the rebellion, the Sith Lord classified the situation as a degree-six revolt and compared the size of the slave population to that of an uprising by the Duros species on the planet Zilior. Drowl planned to end the rebellion by contaminating the slaves' water supply with an experimental poison known as Quell, which could cause a lengthy state of intense pain in victims before they died if the dosage was properly controlled. Despite the evidence to the contrary, Drowl intended to use the situation to prove that increased suffering could lead to the slaves losing their will to resist the Empire. In addition, Drowl wanted to determine the correct dosage of Quell to cause the most pain in the slaves without having them die too quickly. In order to spread the poison in the slave forces, Drowl planned to have the slaves' reserve water tanks destroyed and have Quell placed in four water filters located around the tomb known as the Dark Sanctum. While the Sith Lord devised his plan for the Quell toxin in his laboratory tent located near some slave pens a fair distance from the statue, he assigned Slarin to keep track of the supply of Quell at a nearby research tent and to determine the correct dosage to cause the slaves to die slowly. However, in addition to creating a dosage to Drowl's specifications, Slarin created a much more potent dosage that would kill the slaves outright. The sergeant's plan was to put the rebellion down efficiently, instead of causing the slaves to suffer and die slowly merely for the satisfaction of his Sith superior. By the time of the events at the uncompleted statue, Drowl had interacted with Imperial Intelligence, the Empire's spy network, and recognized some of the organization's agents, including one who had recently arrived on Dromund Kaas.

Shortly after Drowl finished his plans, an individual affiliated with the Empire came to his tent, and the Sith Lord explained the situation and his plan for defeating the slaves. Drowl convinced the individual to obtain the Quell from Slarin and then carry out his plan. While the sergeant attempted to persuade the individual to use his higher dosage to kill the slaves outright, the individual insisted on using the weaker dose that Drowl wanted. After fighting through the slave forces and killing many of them to prevent them from filtering out the Quell toxin, the individual injected the toxin into the four filters and destroyed six reserve water tanks. After finishing with the mission, the individual returned the Drowl, who was pleased with the suffering of the slaves who had ingested the poison as well as the effects on the slaves who were not poisoned but were forced to experience the suffering of the dying slaves. The Sith Lord rewarded the individual for helping him test the Quell toxin on the slaves. After the individual left, Drowl remained to record the further results of the toxin, which he believed would be a great asset for the Empire.

In time, Drowl's predication about Quell came true—Quell toxin saw continued use in the Empire. In 3642 BBY, during the Galactic War, a war was fought between the Republic and Empire on the planet Quesh, where the two factions battled over the poison's primary ingredient, a chemical known as Quesh venom.

At the time of the Dromund Kaas slave revolt, Lord Drowl was balding with black hair on the sides of his head. His skin was pale with purple discolorations around his nose and amber-colored eyes along with crooked, purple-colored lines running across his face and neck. Drowl believed that lower-ranking members of the Empire should be obedient and respectful to him. In addition, he enjoyed controlling and utterly defeating what he termed to be lesser beings, including the slaves on Dromund Kaas, whom he viewed merely as subjects on whom to test the Quell toxin. However, Drowl's main focus with his experiments was not to merely kill the slaves but to cause them an amount of pain and suffering that would cause them to cease resisting the Empire. The Sith Lord viewed the label of sadist as a type of flattery, believing that his work was a complex art. Sergeant Slarin viewed Drowl as a perverse individual who placed his love of needless suffering over the timely success of their missions. Despite evidence showing that suffering did not speed up surrender, the Sith Lord wished to experiment with the Quell toxin rather than kill the slave rebels outright.

Upon seeing the suffering inflicted on both the dying and surviving members of the slave rebellion on Dromund Kaas, Drowl was exhilarated and wished to continue to observe and record the effects of the poison.

During his time spent putting down the slave rebellion on Dromund Kaas, Drowl wore red-and-dark-gray robes with red gloves, a silver-colored belt, and red boots. He also carried a lightsaber. He had a laboratory tent with a workbench, a computer display, and other research equipment, although he had Sergeant Slarin keep up with the Quell toxin in a nearby research tent.

Lord Drowl first appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a 2011 MMORPG produced by BioWare and LucasArts. He is featured in the Sith Empire quest "Testing Grounds," which occurs near the Unfinished Colossus on the planet Dromund Kaas, the second planet for players of the four Imperial classes. In the quest, the players have the option to either use the smaller dosage wanted by Drowl to slowly kill the rebelling slaves, which gives the player dark-side points, or to go along with Sergeant Slarin and use the larger dose to kill the slaves quickly, which gives the player light-side points. If the player goes along with Slarin, Drowl will be disappointed at the quick deaths of the slaves—but does not suspect the player—and merely believes that he needs to rethink his research. If the player follows the light-side path and speaks to Slarin again, the sergeant will mention that Drowl is already working on a new version of the Quell toxin.

Regardless of the player's decision on the quest, the player will be rewarded with 130 in-game credits and the player's choice of either a weapon appropriate for the player's class or a planetary commendation, which can be used to buy higher-quality gear in the game. While the quest with Drowl is not required to continue with any of the Imperial storylines and the player can refuse the quest once starting a conversation with Drowl, this article is written with the assumption of 100 percent game completion. However, because any of the four Imperial classes can complete the quest, it is impossible to determine whether the Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Sith Inquisitor, or Sith Warrior class took on the quest. This article is also written with the assumption that the player only selects dark-side options.

• Star Wars: The Old Republic Explorer's Guide