Malakite

The Sith Lord Malakite lived in the Grumani sector during the Republic Dark Age, the last century of the millennia-long New Sith Wars. He was the grandson of Vilia Calimondra, the matriarch of the Calimondra family and the ruler of substantial Sith holdings in the Grumani sector. He was also the cousin of the two Sith Lords Odion and Daiman, the sons of Xelian, one of Vilia's daughters. His grandmother Vilia married several rulers and produced seven children, including one of Malakite's parents. However, all of her children made claims to become Calimondra's heir, so in order to decided which one would inherit her empire, she organized a contest, which she called the Charge Matrica, challenging her children to expand her territories. However, Xelian soon declared war on Calimondra's son Chagras, resulting in all of her children waging war against each other.

Eventually, only Chagras was left, and Calimondra made him her heir. Chagras maintained a shaky peace through the shaky cooperation of several cousins and grandchildren. He also became the titular ruler of an empire known as the Chagras Hegemony but Vilia still lived and controlled her own empire. By 1042 BBY, Chagras was ready to challenge the Galactic Republic. However, in 1040 BBY, Chagras was killed after being exposed to a nerve toxin. Calimondra then initiated a second Charge Matrica, pitting her grandchildren against each other to fight for the right to become her heir. While Odion and Daiman were the first to declare war on each other, their cousins including Malakite soon followed suit. By 1032 BBY, Malakite had created his own doman known as the Menagerie. Malakite also developed a "perverted" reputation throughout Sith Space of using Sith alchemy to transform sentient beings and animals into vicious Sithspawn who were used to fill the ranks of his armed forces.

Malakite's manpower included various individuals from sentient species who had been mutated into "Mutates" who served as his infantry, and winged Menagerie dragons and Night-Soarers. These creatures were the leftovers of centuries of Sith experimentation and had been reduced into vicious minions who only existed to served their Sith Lord's bidding. Through Sith alchemy and the power of the dark side, Malakite had forged slave warriors that would attack without hesitation. Since the Sith Lord eschewed modern technology in favor of pre-modern weapons and claws, Malakite devised a tactic of using overwhelming numbers to swarm opponents with superior technology. Besides fighting the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order, Malakite also fought constant battles with other Sith like Odion and Ayanos Bactra. Thus, Malakite's forces frequently suffered heavy losses which led the Sith to implement a large-scale breeding program.

In 1032 BBY, the Calimondra dynasty was challenged by a new threat: the lone Jedi Knight Kerra Holt. Kerra was the sole survivor of a failed Jedi mission Operation Influx and had evacuated 63,000 civilians during the Chelloan affair. Kerra employed guerrilla tactics and lightning raids which frustrated the various Sith Lords of the Grumani sector who failed on several occasions to capture or eliminate the Jedi. While Kerra initially targeted Daiman and Odion, her frequent forays into Sith Space eventually caught the attention of matriarch Vilia. However, the matriarch allowed Kerra to remain unmolested because she regard the Jedi woman as a mechanism for providing her Sith grandchildren with experience on how to deal with the Jedi. Vilia planned to one day challenge the Galactic Republic and she believed that her descendants needed to know how to deal with the Jedi Order, the Republic's erstwhile defenders.

That same year, Vilia ordered her grandchildren to turn on the Quermian Sith Lord Ayanos Bactra, a close family friend and the ruler of his own domain known as the Bactranate. Vilia felt that Bactra had outlived his usefulness to the Calimondra family and ordered his elimination. Malakite along with Odion, Daiman, and Lord Lioko were the first to respond and launched an invasion of the Bactranate. Within days, the Bactranate had collapsed and Bactra had fled into hiding at a Quermian retirement colony. Malakite would later be present at a subsequent family bequest convened by Vilia where the Sith matriarch divided Bactra's former territories and corporate assets among her grandchildren. Malakite likely inherited some territory and corporate holdings. Kerra was also secretly present at the bequest since she had been permitted by the Sith Lord Arkadia Calimondra to witness the proceedings which were conducted via hologram. During the proceedings, Malakite's hologram was situated beside Odion's one. Due to his unkempt appearance and untidy hair, Kerra regarded Malakite as an "evolutionary throwback."

Later that year, the Calimondra family also faced another external threat in the form of the Hutt interloper Zodoh, a crime boss involved in slave trafficking and munitions production. He invaded the Daimanate, beginning with the rearward planet of Aquilaris Minor. Malakite was present at a holo-conference where Zodoh contacted the regional Sith Lords, whom all expressed anger at the Hutt's incursion into Sith territory. During the holo-conference, his cousin Odion made xenophobic remarks about the Hutt and threatened to harass his business operations. His cousin Arkadia agreed with Odion's sentiments and angrily accused Zodoh for treating her like a gangster.

Undaunted, Zodoh dismissed the assembled Sith warlords as "petty crooks" who fought over crumbs while neglecting the banquet. He compared the Sith warlords within the Grumani sector to other Sith in Hutt Space who had degenerated into petty squabbles after the Galactic Republic severed all hyperspace communication relays, effectively bring interstellar travel and commerce to a halt throughout much of the galaxy. Zodoh also stressed the superiority of the Hutts by claiming that the Hutt clans were able to survive despite the collapse of governments because they had protocols for talking to each other and moving goods and weapons. The smarter Sith Lords in Hutt Space had realized this fact and made peace with the Hutts while the others had been driven out of the market.

Zodoh claimed that he had come to spread his business franchise in the Grumani sector. He also offered to become their main supplier of slaves and ammunition if they were willing to develop a constructive relationship with him. However, if they resisted, Zodoh promised he would play rougher than the Sith. Finally, he told the assembled warlords to tell their spies to observe developments in Aquilaris in the near future before ending the transmission.During the subsequent Aquilaris campaign, Zodoh used his Stormdrivers—large capital ships equipped with weaponized vaporizers—to artificially flood Aquilaris Minor, inundating large areas of the planet's surface. Zodoh had these developments broadcast during a second holo-conference with the Sith Lords. Malakite was also present during that conference and agreed to a deal with the Hutt lord where the Sith warlords would work against the Daimanate by keeping Daiman's forces preoccupied with border skirmishes.

This had the effect of weakening Daiman's military defenses during the Battle of Darkknell when Zodoh's Stormdrivers flooded his capital world of Darkknell. However, Daiman was saved at the eleventh hour by the intervention of the Jedi Kerra and the Republic starfighter captain Jenn Devaad who destroyed Zodoh's flagship Voracious, ending the Stormdrivers's artificially induced flood. Following the battle, Zodoh was captured by Daiman's cruisers and taken as a captive to his palace Sanctum Celestial at his capital city of Xakrea. Malakite along with Daiman's brother Odion and fellow cousin Arkadia were present when Daiman executed the Hutt interloper. This effectively ended any Hutt ambitions of challenging Sith dominance in the Grumani sector. However, it did little to end Sith tensions which continued to persist.

Later in 1032 BBY, Odion's forces invaded Skarpos, one of Malakite's worlds. Unknown to both Sith Lords, Skarpos was also the secret location of the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact created by Lord Ieldis that was capable of driving sentients into a homicidal frenzy. Odionate and Menagerie warships fought a space battle in orbit while Odionate groups forces including Force-sensitive Novitiates and the Thunder Guard were deployed for ground assault. In response, Malakite rallied his Mutate forces and led the battle while riding a purple horned beast. Malakite's Mutates swarmed the invaders but were no match for their superior technology. Odion's forces were also equally suicidal and fanatically devoted to their master's cause. Unknown to either side, the Jedi Knight Kerra had secretly infiltrated the Novitiates—Odion's elite dark side acolytes—while posing as a young Sith wannabe who had escaped from the Daimanate factory world of Tergamenion named "Mercy."

While the Novitiates battled against Malakite's primitive Mutates, the Odionate commander, General Beld Yulan, ordered his Thunder Guards to charge into the trenches. However, Malakite had set a trap for Odion's forces and ordered his archers to shoot flaming arrows into the trench, which had earlier been filled with starfighter fuel. Despite "Mercy's" warnings, the Odionites charged the trench and many were immolated. All of them were willing to die in order to fulfill Odion's nihilistic ambition of killing all life to end the pain of existence. In the process, several of Malakite's soldiers were burnt to death or wounded. After marvelling that Odion's people were willing to endure anything, he ordered his Mutates to return to an escape craft. There, they would heal their wounds. Malakite also made plans to return and reclaim Skarpos.

Within a few days, Malakite had assembled reinforcements and launched an invasion to retake Skarpos. This time, Malakite's fleet included a large phalanx of Night-Soarers, winged humanoids who were used to ferry Malakite's Mutate warriors. Malakite's battle tactics involved recapturing the high ground before attacking elsewhere. While Yulan's forces had amassed artillery cannons around the Morbollon Mesa, Malakite was unconcerned by the danger and told his men to ignore the "shiny weapons", claiming that the Menagerie could breed warriors faster than they could build blasters. During the Second Battle of Skarpos, the two rival armies were also joined by a third force dispatched by Daiman, Odion's estranged younger brother who had come to claim the Helm for himself. He had helped Kerra to infiltrate the Odionate with the purpose of capturing the Helm and ordered his troops to destroy both Odion and Malakite's forces, disparaging the latter as an abomination.

Meanwhile, Kerra entered the Grumani temple chamber within the Morbollon Mesa only to be captured by Odion, who had already arrived on a shuttle and taken the Helm for himself. After Kerra fell into a state of grief upon learning that her parents Aron and Mercia Holt had already died on Skarpos, her negative emotions activated the Helm of Ieldis. Odion then used the Helm to drive the three amassed armies into a homicidal frenzy. Daiman barely survived an assassination attempt by his crazed Kubaz double-agent Glenk but managed to escape the battle while he still could control his thoughts. Malakite also escaped Skarpos under similar circumstances. Both of them fled offword and alerted their grandmother Vilia to the threat posed by Odion to the galaxy.

In response, Vilia rallied her family to put aside their differences and to stop the threat posed by Odion. Odion's nihilistic ambitions threatened the status quo within the Calimondra family and Vilia reiterated they had to stop him at any cost while there was still time to do so. Malakite along with his cousins Daiman, Arkadia, Lioko and Trevayne would contribute warships to an allied armada. At the moon Vanahame, Odion activated the Helm by channeling the emotions of the child captives at the Odionate cloister on that moon. Odion succeeded in launching his apocalypse, with mass killing sprees occurring throughout the Grumani Sector. Even the allied fleet was not immune as different ships began opening fire on each and several Sith Lords including Daiman were forced to fend off their maddened crew. However, Odion's plot was ultimately foiled by Kerra and Yulan, who had turned against his master for using children to fuel his dark side powers. Yulan freed the children and Odion was killed in a fire unleashed by the Helm.

With the destruction of the Helm, Odion's Force-induced homicidal madness ended. With Odion's death, the Odionate collapsed and was divided up among the various Sith Lords including Daiman who took the largest share of territory. It is also likely that Malakite took part in this scramble for territory.

As a Sith, Lord Malakite was knowledgeable of the powers of the dark side of the Force and wielded a red-bladed Sith lightsaber. While his cousins Daiman and Odion saw themselves as the embodiment of creation and destruction respectively, Malakite saw himself as the embodiment of perversion. His obsession with Sith alchemy led him to breed an army of Sith mutants known as mutates, mindless red-skinned beings created from various species who were twisted in form and mind. As a military commander, Lord Malakite was not above using "dirty tricks" in combat such as luring his enemies into a pit full of starfighter fuel. Despite his savagery and lust for blood, Malakite was also modest enough to concede defeat and knew when to withdraw his forces. However, he was unwilling to concede any of his domains to rival Sith Lords like Odion.

Malakite's disdain for technology led him to favor using overwhelming numbers to defeat higher-technology opponents. However, Malakite's powers were no match for the Helm of Ieldis, a Sith artifact capable of driving sentient beings into a maddened homicidal frenzy. He barely escaped the Second Battle of Skarpos with his life. Despite his self-centered Sith ideology, Malakite was prudent enough to join forces with other Sith Lords when his insane cousin Odion attempted to destroy the galaxy with the Helm of Ieldis. He realized that Odion's actions posed a threat to all life in the galaxy.

Due to the acrimonious dynamics of the Calimondra family, Malakite had an adversarial relationship with most of his family members. He did not tolerate Odion's annexation of one of his domains, the planet Skarpos, and led an invasion to retake that planet. Due to his obsession with Sith alchemy and mutating individuals, Daiman regarded him as an abomination. However, Malakite had a better relationship with his grandmother Vilia Calimondra, the family matriarch. He complied with Vilia's orders for her children to invade and seize the domains of the Bactranate, the realm of the family's ally Ayanos Bactra, who had outlived his usefulness. Later, he answered Vilia's call to join forces with the other Sith Lords to stop Odion's plan to destroy all life in the galaxy.

Lord Malakite was a skilled lightsaber wielder carrying a single-bladed Sith lightsaber. Malakite was also a powerful user of sith alchemy able to create many monstrous creatures for his army.

The Sith Lord Malakite first appeared in John Jackson Miller's novel Knight Errant, which focuses on the adventures of the Jedi Knight Kerra Holt during the New Sith Wars. Malakite later appeared as a minor antagonist in John Jackson Miller's fifteen–part Dark Horse comic series Star Wars: Knight Errant, which ran from October 13, 2010 to October 10, 2012.