Xecr Nist

The Human male Xecr Nist was a Dark Side Adept loyal to Galactic Emperor Palpatine and his Dark Empire regime. After Palpatine was killed in 10 ABY by the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa Solo, he was reborn in one of his clone bodies stored in the Emperor's Citadel on the planet Byss. During this time, Nist served Palpatine as one of his personal advisors. Soon after the Emperor's return, Nist, along with his fellow darksider Tedryn-Sha and the Imperial engineer Umak Leth, accompanied Palpatine aboard a shuttle on an inspection tour of the newest Imperial superweapon, the Galaxy Gun, which was nearing completing in orbit of Byss. As their shuttle circled around the Galaxy Gun, Palpatine received word that Executor Sedriss and Vill Goir—two members of the Dark Side Elite, a select cadre of the Emperor's Dark Jedi—had been killed by Luke Skywalker on the planet Ossus. Fearing that, without his Dark Side warriors, Skywalker could triumph over him, Palpatine quickly turned his attention to Nist and Tedryn-Sha. Stating that they had made progress in submitting to his will, Palpatine imbued Nist and Tedryn-Sha with the dark side, granting them powers of the Dark Jedi and naming Xecr Nist the new Executor to replace the fallen Sedriss. In turn, Tedryn-Sha was made Palpatine's second-in-command.

As the Emperor continued his inspection of the Galaxy Gun with Nist, Tedryn-Sha, and Leth, a cargo of new X-1 Viper droids arrived on Byss, bought from governor Beltane of the planet Balmorra. Unbeknownst to the Imperials, Beltane had made a deal with the New Republic and allowed them to load the droids with New Republic soldiers. Once the droids were delivered to Byss, the soldiers activated them and assaulted the Emperor's Citadel. The Emperor then commanded his adepts in the Citadel to unleash his chrysalide rancors, which decimated the Vipers, although the New Republic troops themselves managed to escape with the help of some local smugglers. Certain that his Galaxy Gun would crush the New Republic despite the enemies' escape, Palpatine told his forces not to waste firepower on the fleeing smuggler ships, much to the surprise of his newly-appointed Dark Jedi. Instead, Palpatine gave an order to fire his new weapon at the New Republic Pinnacle Base on the moon Da Soocha V.

With Pinnacle Base successfully obliterated by the Galaxy Gun and the remnants of the New Republic scattered throughout the galaxy, Palpatine was certain that Luke Skywalker and all Jedi he had managed to assemble would flee straight to the secret hiding place of Leia Organa Solo and her children—the twins Jaina and Jacen, whom the Emperor hoped to turn over to the dark side. Soon, a New Republic pilot named Ntthan was captured by the Empire in an uncharted region of space and delivered to Bast Castle on the planet Vjun, where Dark Jedi Kvag Gthull started torturing him on Organa Solo's location. To oversee the results of Ntthan's interrogation, Nist accompanied Palpatine to Bast Castle aboard the Lambda-class shuttle Tridius, where he was awed by the statue of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader that had been erected by the late Sedriss. Noticing Nist's admiration of the statue, Palpatine ordered the Executor to remove it. The Emperor then proceeded to question Gthull on the progress of the interrogation, and the Dark Jedi informed Palpatine that Ntthan had revealed the coordinates and the name of the planet—New Alderaan.

Having received this information, Palpatine ordered Nist to mobilize the members of the Dark Side Elite and depart for New Alderaan, where they were to capture Skywalker and all his Jedi, along with Organa Solo's children. After that, the Dark Side Elite was to utilize AT-AT walkers to destroy the New Republic settlement on the planet. Boarding I-7 Howlrunner starships, the Dark Jedi squadron, known as of Dark Side Squadron, departed for New Alderaan. After landing on the planet, Nist dispatched Tedryn-Sha and Krdys Mordi to poison Skywalker with scarab droids and capture him, while he and the rest of the Dark Jedi went to kidnap the Solo twins. Sha and Mordi, however, failed to complete their mission and were killed by Organa Solo and one of Skywalker's Jedi, Jem Ysanna, although Jem herself was mortally wounded by Sha and soon died as well. Meanwhile, Nist and the other Dark Jedi reached the building where the Solo children were located. After being informed of Sha and Mordi's failure, Nist ordered Kvag Gthull to infiltrate the building and capture the twins.

While Gthull departed to perform the kidnapping, the Executor and the three remaining Dark Jedi were confronted by three of Skywalker's Jedi—Empatojayos Brand, Rayf Ysanna, and the Dark Side Elite defector Kam Solusar. After a brief lightsaber duel, one darksider was killed and Nist himself was bested by Solusar. Although defeated, the Executor was quick to order Gthull, who had managed to capture the twins, to order the AT-ATs to attack. Gthull followed Nist's command and alerted the AT-ATs, but he was spotted by the Jedi and was killed by Organa Solo's blaster shot immediately thereafter. With both attempts at capturing the Solo twins and Skywalker having failed, Nist and the two remaining members of the Dark Side Elite took advantage of their enemies' preoccupation with the AT-AT attack and retreated to their Howlrunners.

As the New Republic troopers on New Alderaan found themselves fighting against the overwhelming forces of AT-ATs, the same smugglers who had escaped from Byss arrived, backed by an X-Wing flight group. The smugglers engaged the AT-ATs and evacuated all surviving New Republic personnel, including Skywalker, Skywalker's Jedi, Organa Solo, and the twins. Xecr Nist and his Dark Jedi chased the fleeing smuggler ships in their Howlrunners, but the smugglers were able to escape by making a jump to hyperspace.

After the failed mission on New Alderaan, Palpatine restored the number of the Dark Side Elite back to seven by 11 ABY and promised Nist an entire star system should the Executor bring Skywalker's dead body to him. All the while, the Emperor continued to use his Galaxy Gun, destroying such targets as the New Republic troopship Pelagia, inspiring fear and forcing many planets to swear loyalty to the Empire. During this time, Nist took possession of Bast Castle, which had once belonged to Sedriss, and prior to him, to Darth Vader himself. Disobeying Palpatine, Nist did not remove the statue of Vader, hoping that the Emperor would forget his order. Soon, Palpatine himself began to suffer from the decaying effects of his clone's genetic instability, a result of a treachery of the Emperor's physician, who had been bribed by Royal Guard Carnor Jax to secretly tamper with the genetic material of the clones.

Since all other clones had been previously destroyed by Skywalker and the two turncoat Imperial Ruling Council members Nefta and Sa-Di, and new clones could not be bred from the faulty genetic material, Palpatine needed a gene sample taken from a Force-sensitive to restore his line of clones. To this end, Palpatine dispatched Nist to Ossus, ordering the Executor to bring several members of the native Ysanna tribe, who were descended from Jedi, to Vjun. Landing on Ossus, Nist and his stormtroopers quickly secured three Ysanna shamans and proceeded to herd them into Imperial hunter starships. During the loading process, one of the shamans, Okko, tried to mind trick a stormtrooper into letting him go. Sensing Okko's usage of the Force, Nist punched the shaman, freeing the stormtrooper from the effects of the mind trick. Having captured the shamans, Nist's forces departed Ossus, but their departure was witnessed by Skywalker and his allies, who had just arrived there. After tracing that the Imperials were headed to Vjun, Skywalker pursued them, though Nist was aware that he was being followed.

Landing on Vjun, Nist ordered his stormtroopers to freeze the shamans in carbonite, so they could be kept in suspended animation until the Emperor constructed a new clone laboratory. After being informed of two approaching ships and sensing that Skywalker was aboard one of them, Nist ordered Bast Castle's blast doors to be closed, but also that the ships be allowed to land. He then assembled all six Dark Jedi and prepared to confront the Jedi at the landing pad. Skywalker, however, used Solusar's robotic-controlled Howlrunner to ram the blast doors and engaged the Dark Jedi inside the castle, quickly killing two of them. As Nist and Skywalker engaged in a duel, Solusar battled three darksiders at once, while Rayf Ysanna engaged the remaining one.

After several blows, Nist and Skywalker locked their lightsabers until the Jedi suddenly deactivated his weapon. Caught off guard by that maneuver, Nist lost his balance and fell to the floor. Skywalker then used the Force to topple the statue of Darth Vader, causing it to fall and crushing the three Dark Jedi who attacked Solusar. After killing the remaining darksider, the Jedi quickly subdued Nist and took him prisoner, demanding him to reveal the procedure for unfreezing the captive Ysanna shamans. Maintaining that the Emperor could not be defeated, Nist refused to tell anything to his captors. Despite Nist's beliefs, however, the Emperor was soon killed on the planet Onderon, his spirit dragged into Chaos by Empatojayos Brand. Nist himself soon died in a New Republic prison, leaving the defected Kam Solusar the only surviving member of the Dark Side Elite.

Xecr Nist was very loyal to Palpatine and advanced in submission to his will, to the point that he was considered one of the reborn Palpatine's close advisors. Nist firmly believed that his Emperor was virtually invincible and could not be killed. Fearful of his Master's authority and power, Nist usually fulfilled Palpatine's commands to the letter. The Emperor himself acknowledged Nist's loyalty before empowering him with the dark side. Such unquestionable submission eventually led Nist to the possession of Bast Castle, which he had wanted to own for a long time.

Despite his loyalty, however, Nist dared to disobey Palpatine's order to remove the statue of Darth Vader because of the great awe he felt toward the Emperor's former apprentice. Nist was a very self-confident person, considering that in his position as the Emperor's right hand, nothing could stop him. Contrary to his beliefs, Nist was defeated in a lightsaber duel twice, first by Solusar on New Alderaan and then by Skywalker on Vjun. Nist had sadistic inclinations, considering scarab droids, who burrowed into the flesh of their victims, to be "lovely creatures." The Dark Jedi had light skin, and eyes that glowed yellow.

After enduring a traumatic and painful initiation to the Dark Side Elite, Xecr Nist became immersed in the dark side of the Force, acquiring a more sinister attitude and manner of speech. He could wield a lightsaber in battle. The Executor trusted the dark side to guide him to Skywalker on New Alderaan and reprimanded Tedryn-Sha for failing to mask his presence from Skywalker. Nist was able to sense Okko using a mind trick on a stormtrooper and felt that Luke Skywalker was aboard one of the ships headed for Bast Castle. Although initially wary of Skywalker during the mission to New Alderaan, as his self-confidence grew, Nist came to consider himself to be exceptionally powerful and ultimately concluded that Skywalker was no match for him. Despite what he believed, all Nist's powers and lightsaber skills were not enough to defeat the Jedi. He was able to pilot an I-7 Howlrunner, leading Dark Side Squadron during the mission to New Alderaan under the callsign Dark Side One.

Like all members of the Dark Side Elite, Nist wore long dark robes, heavy boots and gauntlets and covered his head with a hood. As one of Palpatine's Dark Jedi, Nist was armed with a lightsaber.

Xecr Nist first appeared in the 1995 comic book Dark Empire II 4, written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. The character went on to appear in the two final issues of the Star Wars: Dark Empire II series, as well as the first issue of the follow-up series Star Wars: Empire's End, illustrated by Jim Baikie and in the audio dramatization of both comics. Nist was briefly mentioned in Sedriss's entry in The New Essential Guide to Characters, which established his death in a New Republic prison after the events of the comic book series.

There are several noticeable differences between the comic books and their audio dramatization. While the audio drama presentation of events may be canon within the Star Wars Legends continuity, for the purposes of this article, these events are described in the biography as told in the comics.

In the audio drama, Nist, together with Tedryn-Sha, arrive aboard the Star Hauler Reliance that is carrying X-1 Viper droids to Byss. After reporting to Palpatine and being empowered with the dark side, the two proceed to the Emperor's Citadel on Byss. Together with Tedryn-Sha, Nist then commands the defense of the planet from the Citadel and contacts Palpatine—who is still inspecting the Galaxy Gun—to inform him of the New Republic attack. Still continuing his inspection tour of the Galaxy Gun, Palpatine is dismissive toward Nist's predicament, leaving him to fend off the attack on his own. During the battle, Tedryn-Sha is injured, and Nist is the one who issues the order to release the chrysalide rancors. In the comic, both Nist and Sha are still on the shuttle with Palpatine during the battle. Additionally, in the audio version, it is Nist who interrogates Ntthan instead of Kvag Gthull.

The most notable difference between the comic and the audio drama, however, is the depiction of Nist's part in the mission to New Alderaan. In contradiction to Dark Empire II, Nist does not participate in the fight between the Dark Jedi, Solusar, Rayf Ysanna, and Brand in the audio adaptation. Instead, he takes the Solo children and guards them as his darksiders fight the Jedi. After all members of the Dark Side Elite are killed, Nist tries to escape with the twins and almost reaches his ship, but is stopped dead by two blaster bolts fired by Leia Organa Solo. Nevertheless, Nist appears in the audio adaptation of Empire's End without any explanation on how he survived. The final part of the audio drama stays closer to the source material regarding Nist's actions, with the only difference being that during the skirmish on Vjun, Nist is backed by ten Dark Jedi instead of six.

Star Wars Handbook 3: Dark Empire, a guide that recounts the events of the Dark Empire comic series, also provides some conflicting information. It erroneously states that it was Krdys Mordi who underwent the initiation alongside Xecr Nist. Describing the events on New Alderaan, it makes no mention of the other darksiders except Mordi and Nist, who, according to the Handbook, "were both cut down." The Handbook also states that the Emperor ordered Nist to capture the Ysanna shamans so he could transfer his spirit inside their bodies. In Empire's End, Palpatine's plan is to get a gene sample from the Ysanna and make new clones of himself with its help. Finally, The New Essential Guide to Characters implies that Xecr Nist was captured on Onderon instead of Vjun.

There is also a slight inconsistency in Nist's entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, which states that Nist was captured after the final death of Palpatine on Onderon. In the comics, however, his capture occurred shortly before Palpatine's demise.

• "Man of War" — Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 8
• Star Wars Handbook 3: Dark Empire
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Official Star Wars Fact File49
• The Official Star Wars Fact File118
• Star Wars: The Comics Companion
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Atlas