Crado

Within the serene ruins of Dantooine, Crado, together with his mate Sylvar and the Human Exar Kun, received instruction in the Jedi ways from the Krevaaki Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas. This was a great honor for Crado, as Baas had previously mentored accomplished Jedi such as Qrrrl Toq, Dace Diath, and Shoaneb Culu. Exar Kun proved a formidable rival for the two Cathar Jedi, consistently outperforming them in lightsaber combat. Interpreting Kun's talents as a sign of superiority, Crado sought Kun's favor, behaving subserviently and offering assistance whenever possible.

Following a lightsaber duel where Exar Kun inflicted injury upon Crado, Sylvar challenged the Human, only to suffer defeat as well. Their master intervened, employing only his cane in an attempt to impart a lesson on strengths and weaknesses to Kun. However, Crado aided his rival by providing another lightsaber, enabling Kun to overcome Master Vodo. Subsequently, Exar Kun departed Dantooine, declaring himself a Jedi Knight and embarking on a quest for ancient Sith knowledge.

Following this event, Vodo-Siosk Baas and his two remaining apprentices learned of a grand assembly of the Jedi Order on the planet Deneba. The Conclave's purpose was to address the growing influence of the dark side cult known as the Krath and their repeated assaults on the Republic. On their way to Deneba, Crado proposed marriage to Sylvar, suggesting they return to Cathar and leverage their knowledge from Master Vodo to achieve fame. Sylvar responded that she would gladly bear his offspring, but would remain a Jedi nonetheless.

Unbeknownst to the Jedi, the Krath were plotting against them even as they deliberated on their course of action. The droids used by the Jedi Masters were reprogrammed to attack their owners on command, and a shipment of custom-built battle droids was en route to the assembly. Master Baas and the two Cathar Jedi arrived on Deneba just as the Krath droids launched their attack. Sylvar distinguished herself in the battle by aiding Nomi Sunrider and her daughter, Vima. Ultimately, the Jedi prevailed against the Krath droids, but at a significant cost.

Exar Kun, having returned from his pursuit of dark side knowledge and secretly crowned as the new Dark Lord of the Sith, journeyed to the library world of Ossus, where numerous Jedi, including Crado, had gathered. Kun's objectives on Ossus were twofold: to garner support from other Jedi Knights and to acquire Sith artifacts that the Order had confiscated. Crado was among the young Jedi who readily embraced Kun's promises of a new Jedi Order, and he was bewildered by the Sith amulet, which Exar claimed was a Jedi artifact hidden from the Jedi apprentices by their masters, that his former rival now possessed.

However, to attract even more Jedi to his cause, Exar Kun realized he needed to obtain a Sith holocron, the only one on Ossus being in the possession of Jedi Master Odan-Urr. Odan-Urr resisted Kun, forcing him to employ the newfound powers of his Sith amulet to overcome him. When other Jedi arrived at the scene of this murder, Exar Kun claimed that Master Odan-Urr had simply passed away, but not before proclaiming Kun a Jedi Master. Along with a growing group of fellow students, Crado journeyed with Kun to the fourth moon of Yavin aboard Kun's starship, Starstorm One.

On Yavin IV, Crado and the other Jedi converts who chose to follow Exar Kun were led to a temple, where the rogue Jedi made further promises of glory and a new Order. One of the students, a Jedi named Oss Wilum, remained unconvinced, sensing the dark side's strong presence on the moon and around the temple. Wilum attempted to return to the ship, but was confronted by the Massassi, who had been altered from their original form as Sith warriors by the long-past Dark Lord Naga Sadow and enslaved by Kun. When the Massassi warriors blocked Wilum's path, he fought them, and Crado and the rest of the Jedi came to his aid. Exar Kun rushed to stop the conflict, explaining that the Massassi were simple natives trying to protect their master. Upon their return to the temple, Kun explained that the holocron he had obtained was not, in fact, a Jedi artifact, but a Sith holocron—a source of dark side energy, which must be destroyed. Exar Kun pounded the item, shattering it, and its crystal shards embedded in the palms of the Jedi students, possessing them with the spirits of the Sith—all except Crado, who was an easy mark for the Dark Lord. Kun explained to Crado that he had given the other Jedi the knowledge he had promised them, and Crado easily accepted this version of the story, as his blind admiration of Kun quelled any doubts in his heart.

As Exar Kun initiated the Sith War against the Jedi and the Republic, Crado remained by his former rival's side as a trusted and eager companion. After the dark side minions had retrieved their personal vessels from Ossus, Kun sent them each on a very special mission: they were to kill their own Jedi Masters, in order to make room for the new Jedi Order of his visions. As Kun himself went to Coruscant in order to save his Sith apprentice, Ulic Qel-Droma, and personally deal with Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, Crado was sent with Oss Wilum to Ambria in order to assassinate Wilum's former master, the formidable Tchuukthai known as Thon.

Upon arriving on Ambria, Crado and Oss proceeded to Lake Natth, which was home to the hssiss, dark-side monsters which Thon had managed to contain. Drawing upon their new Sith powers, the pair summoned a large group of hssiss from the turbid waters and directed them to Thon's house. As they neared the dwelling, Crado discovered that Master Thon had visitors: Nomi Sunrider and Vima, as well as his very own mate, Sylvar. There, Crado was faced with a choice: either he could call off the hssiss' attack to spare Sylvar, or the attack could continue, possibly killing Crado's only mate for life. Crado betrayed his mate, declaring that all present at Thon's house were to die.

The Jedi sensed the impending attack and rushed to defend against the beasts—Nomi and Sylvar with their lightsabers, and Thon with his very teeth and claws. The fight was savage, and the hssiss very nearly overwhelmed the Jedi. But Oss Wilum's control of the beasts was no match for Sunrider's skills at battle meditation, and the hssiss were thrown into disarray and defeat. Thon neutralized his former student Oss, leaving Crado to face the Jedi alone. Crado knew that he could not defeat his enemies without help, but as he approached Sylvar, his former mate raked his face with her claws, declaring him a traitor and a murderer as well as blaming Crado for Master Vodo's cruel death at the hands of Exar Kun. Crado rushed back to his ship—leaving Oss Wilum behind—and fled Ambria to return to his new master's side.

Returning to Exar Kun's base on Yavin IV, Crado begged for mercy, as well as another chance to prove himself to his former rival. However, Kun seemed less bothered by the setback than he should have been, and gave Crado what he'd craved all along. Crado was to go with the Krath sorceress Aleema Keto on a grand mission to lure the Republic fleet to its destruction, and he was personally named Aleema's battle commander for the mission.

They embarked on Naga Sadow's ancient flagship, the Corsair, which the Dark Lord had used to flee Republic forces centuries before. The Corsair came equipped with a terrible weapon that had only been used once before: a Sith crystal that gave its user the power to manipulate the awesome energies of a star.

The Corsair attacked Kemplex Nine, a huge space station near the Cron Cluster in the Auril sector, in order to get the attention of the Republic fleet. When the fleet arrived, led by the Jedi Shadows Dace Diath, Qrrrl Toq, and Shoaneb Culu, the station had been devastated, and the old Sith battleship was fleeing towards the relative safety of the Cron Cluster. The Jedi gave chase as the Corsair slipped between the stars, drawing the pursuers to their doom. As they closed in on the Sith flagship and began to fire upon it, Aleema released the fury of the Sith crystal, tearing the stellar core from one of the ten stars of the Cluster and hurling it toward the incoming fleet. The Republic ships and their Jedi allies were destroyed instantly. Yet something unforeseen occurred next.

The stellar core underwent a chain reaction and imploded, and the star's intense energy had nowhere to go but outward. Aleema and Crado knew then that they had both been betrayed: Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma had failed to mention to them that the weapon's power was very likely to backfire upon any who hadn't been instructed in its proper use. Crado died in a wave of intense radiation, wondering why his fellow student of the Force had decided that he should die, unaware that it was his very eagerness to please Exar Kun that had spelled his doom.

A decade following Crado's demise and the conclusion of the Sith War, Sylvar harbored lingering resentment towards Ulic Qel-Droma for Crado's descent into darkness and subsequent death. Despite the former Sith Lord's self-imposed exile, Sylvar deemed it insufficient retribution. After failing to persuade the Jedi Order to punish Qel-Droma for his transgressions, Sylvar took matters into her own hands, tracking the former Sith apprentice to Rhen Var, where she intended to kill him, nearly succumbing to the dark side herself. Ultimately, however, Crado's mate could not bring it upon herself to avenge Crado if it meant killing an unarmed opponent. She re-embraced the Jedi way and refused to kill Ulic, although the man was shot only moments later by a spacer named Hoggon, who only sought glory in the death of Qel-Droma. Crado, along with Sylvar, was remembered on his homeworld in the form of a detailed work of tree art. His people always remembered his plight, and though they took comfort in the fact that Sylvar was able to turn away from the dark side, further Cathar Jedi were discouraged, because most believed that their natural instincts were in direct opposition to the Jedi way.

As an apprentice under Vodo-Siosk Baas, Crado experienced frequent defeats at the hands of Exar Kun, leading him to believe in Exar's superior Jedi abilities. However, Exar Kun's attitude, towards their master as well as Sylvar, did not bode well with Crado. This underlying resentment broke through during Kun's fight with Master Vodo, when Crado gave his rival another weapon and challenged him to prove his superiority.

Later, with further training under Master Baas, without the continued disruption by Exar Kun, Crado took pride in his accomplishments. His ambition was to wed Sylvar and return with her to their Cathar homeworld, where they would achieve renown among their people.

However, upon Exar Kun's return from his quest for Sith knowledge, Crado was once again awestruck by the Human, placing faith in Exar's visions of a new Jedi path. Unlike the other Jedi who followed the rogue knight to Yavin IV, Crado was not possessed by the Sith spirits Exar Kun released when he destroyed the Sith holocron. Still he followed Kun, completely loyal and eager to please. The Cathar even went to far as to order the death of his own former mate, in order to carry out Exar's instructions. However, when Crado's mission failed and he approached Sylvar to seek forgiveness, she denied him, and Crado fled back to his master, dejected. Crado's enthusiasm would be his undoing however, as Exar Kun found him to be expendable, sending his old rival on a mission from which Exar knew that Crado would not return.

Crado's character made his debut in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 1 of the comic book series Tales of the Jedi. Created by writer Kevin J. Anderson for the series, Crado continued to appear in subsequent issues of the Dark Lords of the Sith and The Sith War sub-series. He is briefly referenced in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, where the player can discover a robe purportedly belonging to Crado, though its authenticity is deemed improbable.