Darkstaff

The Darkstaff was a sentient and exceptionally dangerous Sith artifact, ranking among the most unpredictable objects in the galaxy. This brown rod, measuring approximately one meter in length and four centimeters in diameter, featured a crooked end and emitted a blue light from the opposite end. Although designed to feed off the Force, the staff was not itself a Force-imbued object. The Darkstaff consumed all nearby light and could generate black, smoky tendrils to extract Force essences from living beings and drain energy from Force artifacts. However, it could not absorb the Force essences of individuals who willingly sacrificed themselves out of compassion and love. The staff utilized absorbed energy to strengthen itself, gaining the power to destroy an entire planet if it accumulated sufficient Force energy. For protection, it could create a Force-free zone around itself. It possessed the ability to teleport to different locations, except when within one kilometer of the Eye of the Sun, a light side artifact imbued with the light side of the Force. The staff was impervious to all Force powers and energy damage, including lightsaber attacks.

The staff could also possess minds, using individuals as vessels for communication with a dark, rough voice. It could control non-sentient creatures, though Force Light could break its influence over animals. Furthermore, it could transform creatures into Sithspawn, dark side–influenced mutants, and animate corpses into dark side–using zombies. Corpses exposed to the Darkstaff for extended periods could mutate, becoming stronger when attacked with energy weapons.

The Darkstaff also emitted an effect that interfered with concentration, creating an uncomfortable sensation as if the air were thick, oily, and unpleasant. Individuals could resist this effect by entering a Force-induced trance. The staff could drive beings insane and prevent healing through the Force to heal. It could imbue wielders with powers of the Sith battlelords, warrior leaders connected to their troops through the Force. This allowed the wielder to bond others through the Force, transferring any wounds inflicted on them to the bonded individuals, rendering the wielder invulnerable while the bonded individuals lived. Additionally, the staff prevented disarming during combat and could cloak its bearer in shadows. In some cases, using the Darkstaff could render a Force-sensitive individual unable to connect to the Force.

Interactions between the Darkstaff and large amounts of dark side energy could generate a time vortex capable of causing a star system to disappear and travel into the future. This vortex could also cause timeshadows, alternate timeline versions of affected individuals. The Darkstaff could generate a Force storm capable of creating a hyperspace wormhole to transport individuals across time and space. The staff could alter its surroundings, and with sufficient energy, remake the nearest part of the galaxy into a larger version of itself. On a planet, it could infuse the environment with the dark side. The Darkstaff's effects sometimes caused the light and dark sides of the Force to clash, generating a disturbance in the Force and disrupting technology.

The Darkstaff thrived on the suffering of others, with its primary goal being destruction. It was ambitious, seeking power, death, and the consumption of energy, especially the Force. Deceitful, it manipulated others to achieve its ends, preferring to be seen as a desirable object. It played on greed and ambition, ensuring it was discovered only by those it wished to find. When wielded, it warped the user's mind and made itself difficult to remove. The staff tried to remain safe from those who sought to destroy it.

Believing itself powerful, the Darkstaff asserted its right to choose when to end the lives of sentient beings, considering it acceptable for the strong to decide the fate of the weak, viewing some as destined to be slaves. It disliked interruptions and became angered by being spoken over. It did not consider itself insane, viewing insanity as a term invented by the weak to explain the power of the strong. The Darkstaff was incapable of understanding compassion and self-sacrifice.

A member of the Sith Order created the Darkstaff several thousand years before the Clone Wars. The staff's creator regretted this act, and the Sith Lord Darth Rivan later speculated it was the result of a failed experiment. However, the artifact killed its creator before it could be unmade, and the Darkstaff remained dormant for many years.

The Darkstaff then destroyed entire worlds and killed millions. The Sith Empire eventually recovered the artifact, deeming it too dangerous to destroy but too powerful to discard. It was stored in the Arcanum, a space station commissioned by the Sith Emperor as a repository for dangerous artifacts. Cataloged as ID number 426-609-19752, it was contained within a reliquary in the Arcanum's Specimen Storage Complex, with a warning plaque advising against physical or mental interaction. Around 3638 BBY, the Sith Lord Tagriss raided the facility on behalf of the Dread Masters, a group of powerful Sith who had seceded from the Sith Empire, and liberated the Darkstaff. Penetrating the Arcanum's Specimen Storage Complex, Tagriss found and removed the Darkstaff from its reliquary, but was pursued by operatives loyal to either the Empire or the Galactic Republic. Holding the artifact, Tagriss ascended to the complex's upper levels and used the Darkstaff to release the Dashade Shadow Killer Akriss Veng to stall the agents while he fled the station with the relic. Tagriss took the Darkstaff to the Dread Guard Sanctum on Belsavis. The operatives loyal to either the Empire or the Republic traced Tagriss to Belsavis, and when they entered the Sanctum, they encountered Dread Guardsman Varrow, who used the Darkstaff to fight them. While the Darkstaff granted him immunity from many attacks and other powers—the ability to animate stone statues and to resurrect long-dead Sith from the sarcophagi in the chamber—he was unable to control the power of the Darkstaff; midway through the battle it turned on him and drained him of life. After Varrow's death, the Darkstaff vanished into thin air with a fiery explosion.

Sometime afterward, the Darkstaff fell into the possession of a wandering trader, who transported the relic to the planet Oblis in the Cularin system. There, it passed into the hands of the Oblee, the planet's native sentient species. The staff was studied by the scientist-philosophers, the ruling Oblee caste, who recognized that the artifact possessed great power. The Darkstaff planned to destroy Oblis, so it began to manipulate the Oblee, using its energy-draining abilities to draw a shadow creature—a type of energy-based being that fed on emotions—to Oblis. The shadow creature settled into the orbit of Oblis and began to meld itself into the atmosphere of the world, growing in size. As a result of the staff's influence, the Oblee began to view the shadow creature as a threat, and the scientist-philosophers planned to use the Darkstaff to power a weapon that would allow them to send the shadow creature away from their world. The Priests of Nether, an Oblee religious sect, suspected that the Darkstaff was manipulating the Oblee, but despite their concerns, work on the construction of the weapon went ahead.

To power their machine, the scientist-philosophers created three focusing crystals and placed them at strategic locations around Oblis; the Oblee all channeled their hopes and fears into the crystals. The species situated their weapon inside a great hall on top of a mountain; there, a scientist-philosopher inserted the Darkstaff and one of the focusing crystals into a covered tray at the side of the machine, then activated the device. The Darkstaff immediately absorbed energy from the three crystals and created a blue-colored energy beam that burst through the ceiling of the hall and struck the shadow creature, hurling the being away from the system. However, the Darkstaff triggered a chain reaction that caused Oblis to explode seconds later. The Darkstaff and the focusing crystals were left unharmed by the cataclysm, while the Oblee were transformed into incorporeal beings that became known as "shadow lurkers," trapped in a shadowy realm that was created when the staff destroyed their world. The Darkstaff continued to draw power from the shadow lurkers via the three focusing crystals, which forced the lurkers to take in energy from anything that they could reach in order to prevent themselves from being completely absorbed by the artifact.

The remains of Oblis formed into the Cularin asteroid belt, and the Darkstaff eventually came to be located within a chamber inside the asteroid I-9. The shadow lurkers made it their mission to hide the Darkstaff away, to protect the galaxy from the artifact, so they put in place six shadowy entrances to the chamber containing the staff, only one of which led to the staff itself. As a further defense, the disembodied Oblee installed incorporeal guardians inside the staff's chamber, which were tasked with challenging anyone who attempted to take the staff. At some point, a creature entered the staff's chamber and had its life sucked out by the Darkstaff, and over time the long exposure of the creature's remains to the Darkstaff mutated them, so that they became stronger when hit by energy weapons. The dark side of the Force sought to destroy the Darkstaff and began gathering on I-9, so the staff created a void in the Force around itself as a defense. Unable to enter the staff's chamber, the dark side built up its strength and waited outside the room for years, biding its time.

Sometime between 1417 BBY and 1167 BBY, amidst the New Sith Wars, Darth Rivan, the Dark Lord of the Sith, discovered the existence of the Darkstaff. Driven by a desire for the artifact, the Sith Lord journeyed to the Cularin system, constructing a fortress on Almas, the system's fifth planet. However, he soon realized the staff's potential to destroy him and resolved to neutralize it. He refrained from directly searching for the staff, believing it intended to use him to leave the sector, which would cause widespread galactic damage. He experienced dreams of using the Darkstaff to drain the Force from his enemies, but chose not to act on these visions, believing they were manipulated by the staff. Instead, he recorded his thoughts in his personal journals and used a holocron to gather information about the staff.

During a major conflict in the Cularin system against forces led by members of the Jedi Order, Rivan finally gained possession of the Darkstaff. However, the artifact created a Force storm, generating a hyperspace wormhole and eliminating Rivan's army of Sith battlelords. Caught in the storm's center, Rivan was transported centuries into the future to a battle within the Ruusan campaign, a series of engagements fought on the planet Ruusan at the end of the New Sith Wars. The Darkstaff's effects left Rivan devoid of the Force, and he was slain in his weakened state during the battle. The Darkstaff remained in the Cularin system, and at the same time the Ruusan campaign was being fought, a group of Jedi Masters created a Force-imbued artifact known as the Eye of the Sun on the planet Cularin. The Eye had the power to shield Force users from detection. Such properties concealed the Darkstaff, preventing the Sith artifact from being sensed from outside the Cularin system. It acted as a light side counterpoint to the Darkstaff, preventing the staff from sucking the life from all living things in the Cularin system. The Jedi Order eventually recorded everything that they could ascertain about the Darkstaff in the Jedi Archives, but they knew little about the history and location of the artifact.

Nearly a thousand years after the Ruusan campaign, during the waning years of the Galactic Republic, the Force-sensitive criminal Len Markus stumbled across a record that made reference to the Darkstaff, and he became determined to locate the artifact. Markus followed a trail of evidence that allowed him to track the staff to the Cularin system, but once there, he was unable to pinpoint the artifact's exact location. He settled in the system, became an associate of the Oblee crime lord Nirama, and spent several years fruitlessly searching for the Darkstaff. Markus' fortunes changed when he came into contact with the renowned information broker Sot-sirc, who traveled to the Cularin system and helped Markus research the artifact.

Over a period of many months, Markus dedicated himself to analyzing the inscriptions found within the Cularin system's asteroid belt. Around 31 BBY, he came to the conclusion that the artifact was located on I-9. However, his research was fundamentally flawed due to translation errors in the inscriptions. These errors led him to believe that the Darkstaff empowered its user to manipulate the minds of others, even those resistant to Force-based influence. In reality, the inscriptions described the staff's ability to twist and shatter the minds of those nearby.

With a plan to seize the Darkstaff from the asteroid belt, Markus intended to use it to overthrow Nirama's control over organized crime within the Cularin system. Secretly departing for I-9, Markus arranged for members of the Red Fury Brotherhood, a local pirate group, to meet him on the asteroid and aid in his search. Upon their arrival, the pirates were quickly driven mad by the Darkstaff's power, but Markus managed to reach the asteroid's core. There, he claimed the artifact, which willingly allowed itself to be taken. However, Nirama, suspecting Markus's betrayal, hired the Heroes of Cularin, freelance agents operating in the Cularin system, to locate Markus. The agents tracked Markus to I-9, arriving shortly after he had secured the Darkstaff. As Markus boarded his personal starship with the artifact, he contacted the freelancers via a holoprojection, displaying the Darkstaff while boasting of his newfound power and claiming to be the most powerful being in the universe.

Soon after, Markus left the asteroid field, piloting his starship towards Almas. The dark side of the Force, however, still sought the staff's destruction. In an attempt to annihilate the artifact, it unleashed a surge of dark side energy from Darth Rivan's fortress on Almas, creating a massive bolt of Force lightning stretching kilometers in length that struck the Darkstaff. This impact cracked the Darkstaff, weakening the Sith artifact. The interaction between the staff and the dark side energy generated a time vortex that engulfed the entire Cularin system, causing it to vanish and reappear ten years in the future, around 21 BBY. This temporal shift destroyed Markus's starship and ejected Markus and the Darkstaff from the Cularin system.

The Darkstaff then took control of Markus. Under its influence, he ascended through the ranks of the Believers, a Sith cult he had established in the Cularin system years prior, eventually becoming their leader. Sometime after the Cularin system's return, the Heroes of Cularin thwarted the Believers' attempt to release a deadly virus on the planet Caarimon. Celebrations were held on Dorumaa, the moon of Almas, to honor the agents' actions. During these festivities, a false rumor spread that a member of the Tarasin, a sentient species native to Cularin, had discovered the Darkstaff and planned to use it to eliminate all non-Tarasin residents. Simultaneously, a team of Jedi researchers uncovered Darth Rivan's journals within the Sith fortress on Almas, publishing excerpts on the HoloNet detailing Rivan's thoughts on the Darkstaff.

Ultimately, the Heroes of Cularin made their way back to the Cularin asteroid belt and interacted with the shadow lurkers. These entities were afraid that their spirits would soon be completely consumed by the Darkstaff, and that once they were gone, the focusing crystals installed by the scientist-philosophers would funnel the Force essences of all life in the asteroid belt into the Darkstaff. Therefore, the phantom Oblee implored the agents to destroy the three focusing crystals. Through its connection to the shadow lurkers, the Darkstaff became aware of the freelance operatives' plans and urged Len Markus to intervene to protect the crystals. Responding to the staff's demands, Markus dispatched a group of Believers to the asteroid belt to prevent the operatives from destroying the crystals. However, the Heroes of Cularin defeated the Believers and shattered the focusing crystals, severing the Darkstaff's connection to the shadow lurkers and resulting in the Oblee being resurrected to their physical form.

Around 20 BBY, Markus struck a deal with the Chevin slaver Phylus Mon to repair the damage inflicted on the Darkstaff by the Force lightning. Markus allowed Mon access to the Almas fortress, where the slaver intended to uncover the secrets of creating Sith battlelords. He planned to use these rituals to manipulate the Force essences of living beings, allowing the Darkstaff to feed on them and regain its power. Markus entrusted the staff to Mon, who traveled with it to the Cularin system aboard his personal starship, the Animiasma. Accompanied by his slave servants and his ally, the Human Dark Jedi Karae Nalvas, Mon overcame the Jedi guards at the Sith fortress and ventured into its depths.

The spirit of Darth Rivan's apprentice Darsin was enraged by Mon's possession of the Darkstaff and harassed the slaver's group, but Mon used the staff to repel the spirit. After discovering a tome detailing the creation of Sith battlelords, Mon placed the Darkstaff on a stone altar and began performing the rituals, attempting to bind four of his slaves and two captive Jedi to himself and Nalvas through the Force. However, the ritual failed due to the Darkstaff's presence. Instead, the staff melted the altar and ripped the Force essences from Nalvas, the slaves, and the Jedi, transferring them into a large crystal pyramid. The Darkstaff then began to feed on these trapped essences, using them to strengthen itself.

Mon and his slaves returned to the Animiasma with the Darkstaff and the crystal, hiding the ship deep within the Cularin system's asteroid belt. As the staff grew stronger, it gradually began to corrupt the area around the vessel, draining energy from a cylindrical region that slowly transformed into a larger version of the artifact. Unbeknownst to the staff, the Heroes of Cularin and the Jedi Oden Malksch boarded the Animiasma, seeking to destroy the Darkstaff and release the trapped Force essences. To delay the agents, the artifact manipulated the ship's environment and crew, leading the freelancers into Phylus Mon's private zoo, a collection of unusual sentient beings he had captured. As the agents navigated the zoo, the staff made another attempt to neutralize them by possessing Alianda, a Human slave of Phylus Mon. Speaking through her, it offered the agents anything they desired if they abandoned their mission, threatening destruction if they persisted. The Darkstaff then withdrew from Alianda, teleported away from the Animiasma, and continued to draw strength from the trapped Force essences. Phylus Mon frantically searched for the artifact but was confronted by the Heroes of Cularin. The agents destroyed the pyramid, freeing the Force essences and preventing the Darkstaff from fully restoring itself.

Len Markus regained possession of the staff and, around 19 BBY, returned to the Cularin system. By this time, the staff had driven Markus insane, but he remained deluded, believing he controlled the artifact. He moved as if in a dream, following the staff's commands as it pursued its new objective: the destruction of the Cularin system. To achieve this, the Darkstaff planned to locate the Eye of the Sun and consume the Jedi-created artifact's Force essence, which would make it the most powerful object in the galaxy. It would then use this energy to detonate the planet Cularin, sending the system's other planets into Cularin's two suns, allowing the Darkstaff to drift into space, awaiting rediscovery. The artifact concealed its full plan from Markus, leading him to believe it intended to use the Eye of the Sun to drain the Force essences of all life on Cularin. The Darkstaff imbued Markus with some of the powers of a Sith battlelord, creating a Force bond between him and his Gamorrean servant Kluuus.

Shortly after returning to the system, Markus, wielding the staff, met with a group of Believers and tasked them with attacking a conference on Cularin attended by the system's leaders. Later, the staff was used by an enshrouded being during a raid on the Five Masters Academy, a martial arts school on Cularin affiliated with the Wookiee Liberation Front. Using the staff to create a cloak of shadow, the assailant attacked the Academy's students and instructors, massacring them by draining their life forces. Only the Master in Violet, a Zabrak adept of the martial art K'thri, remained alive, using a songsteel staff to deflect the Sith artifact. However, Barnab Chistor, a pupil absent during the initial attack, ambushed the shadowy being and fired an experimental weapon at it. Wounded, the assailant retreated, using the Darkstaff to resurrect the corpses of the deceased students and set them upon Chistor and the Master in Violet.

Suspecting the return of Markus and the Darkstaff, Nirama sought a way to destroy the Sith artifact. He discovered that the Twi'lek academic Klide was close to locating the Eye of the Sun, and the Oblee believed it could be used to destroy the staff. Unable to act alone, Nirama hid in his former base within the Cularin asteroid belt and sent a message to the Heroes of Cularin, requesting their aid in striking against the staff. However, Len Markus intercepted these transmissions and headed for Red Sector with the Darkstaff and a team of mercenaries. He captured Nirama and communicated with the Heroes of Cularin via a holographic transmission, the agents having arrived at the base in response to Nirama's summons. During the conversation, the staff caused Markus to openly display his insanity, demonstrating its control over him.

After stealing the coordinates of the Eye of the Sun from Klide, Markus journeyed into the jungles of Cularin with the Darkstaff and some mercenaries, heading towards the Eye's hiding place near the Heart Tree, a large plant at the center of an interconnected network of ch'hala trees spanning Cularin. En route, the staff made Markus transform a group of Mulissiki, local non-sentient reptilian scavengers, into Sithspawn, granting them the ability to shoot acid or lightning from their mouths to kill or weaken pursuers. The Force Adepts San Herrera and Nia Reston spotted Markus and followed him, hoping to capture him and protect Cularin. However, Markus attacked them, using the Darkstaff to drain their Force essences and transform their mummified corpses into dark side–wielding zombies, which he left to attack anyone who bypassed the mutated Mulissiki.

Upon reaching the Heart Tree, the Darkstaff sensed the Eye of the Sun's presence. Markus ordered his mercenaries to dig around the tree, searching for the Jedi artifact. The Darkstaff twisted the surrounding jungle with the dark side of the Force, attempting to overwhelm the tree and prevent it from concealing the Eye's location. These efforts caused a disturbance in the Force, creating an anomaly that made the air crackle and disabled large pieces of technology near the tree.

The Heroes of Cularin arrived at the Heart Tree and confronted Markus, intending to thwart the Darkstaff's plan. Markus immediately used the staff to summon twelve Kilassin, large, non-sentient lizards native to Cularin, to fight for him, then engaged the freelance operatives in combat. In a fit of pique, the staff decided to deny Markus the ability to use the Force to heal himself during the battle. Markus used the Darkstaff to deflect the operatives' attacks and attempted to drain their Force essences. However, the agents defeated Markus' mercenaries, and the Heart Tree summoned a gigantic Kilassin to aid Markus' opponents, countering the imbalance created by the Darkstaff's summoning of the lesser Kilassin. At the battle's climax, one of the freelancers volunteered to be struck by the Darkstaff, allowing them to channel the light side of the Force into the artifact and attempt to neutralize it. The Darkstaff panicked and ordered Markus to pull it away from the agent. Markus tried to break the agent's hold but failed. Through the agent's sacrifice, the Darkstaff was destroyed. As the artifact was obliterated, the jungle around the Heart Tree shook, and a loud cracking sound echoed through the air. The agent became one with the Force, their body vanishing, leaving behind only clothes and equipment. The artifact's destruction permanently severed Markus from the Force, and the hand in which he held the staff withered into a mass of blackened flesh.

The leaders of some nearby Tarasin tribal groups sensed the staff's destruction through the Force and held a celebration next to the Heart Tree. However, the Tarasin Dariana feared that the staff's destruction would attract unwanted attention to Cularin, so she began planning to hide the children of her species.

The Darkstaff's origins trace back to 2002, when Morrie Mullins and Christina Nichols conceived it for Philology, the third adventure within the Below the Belt trilogy of the Living Force campaign. This campaign served as a supplement to the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Within Philology, the staff played a pivotal role in causing the Cularin system's decade-long disappearance, a plot device that facilitated the relocation of the Living Force campaign's setting from the era of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace to that of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. The destinies of Len Markus and the Darkstaff evolved into a recurring motif throughout the campaign, with the artifact's origins and history receiving further elaboration in 2003 through the Living Force module Recursion and the Wizards.com article The Darkstaff. In 2006, the staff made appearances in The Hand and The Eye, the concluding adventures of the Living Force campaign, both authored by Morrie Mullins and Jae Walker, which depicted the Darkstaff's ultimate fate. Later, the staff was granted an entry in the 2008 compendium The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia and received a mention in the 2009 sourcebook The Clone Wars Campaign Guide. The staff's presence extended into the 2013 game Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, an expansion pack for the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, marking the first instance of a visual representation of the artifact.

Inconsistencies exist across various sources regarding the capitalization of "Darkstaff." Some, such as Philology, Recursion, and The Eye, opt for "darkstaff," while others, including No Place Like Home, Echoes of the Jedi, and Living Force: Last Stand, prefer "Darkstaff." Given that The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia and The Clone Wars Campaign Guide, the two most recent sources to mention the staff, both employ "Darkstaff," this article adopts that capitalization as the correct form.

The Eye contains several inconsistencies, one of which pertains to a passage recounting events from Philology involving the reanimation of a skeletal creature on asteroid I-9. Philology specifies that only one such creature existed and that, while infused with the Darkstaff's power, its remains were reanimated by spirits placed by the shadow lurkers, not by the staff itself. However, The Eye erroneously claims that the player characters encountered multiple skeletal creatures in Philology and that the Darkstaff itself reanimated them. As The Eye presents an out-of-universe perspective, summarizing the player characters' experiences during Philology, this article assumes that the events as described in The Eye are inaccurate.

Another discrepancy within The Eye relates to the Eye of the Sun. The adventure asserts that the Eye of the Sun was created concurrently with the Battle of Ruusan and completed two years afterward, and that Darth Rivan sensed the Darkstaff through the Eye's shielding upon his arrival in the Cularin system. However, the Wizards.com article The Sith Fortress established that Rivan died during the Battle of Ruusan, a fact corroborated by the roleplaying adventure Echoes of the Jedi. Therefore, Rivan must have arrived in the Cularin system before the Battle of Ruusan and the Eye's creation, leading this article to assume that the Eye of the Sun did not shield the Darkstaff at the time of Rivan's arrival. A third inconsistency in The Eye concerns the Darkstaff's diameter. While The Darkstaff article established a diameter of 4 cm, The Eye claims 6 cm. The entry for the Darkstaff in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia supports the former measurement, so this article assumes a diameter of 4 cm.

The staff's appearance in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel introduces a further discrepancy regarding its color. While consistently described as black within the Living Force campaign, the game depicts it as brown. This article describes the staff as portrayed in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The players in the Living Force campaign assume the roles of the Heroes of Cularin, and their choices during the adventures featuring the Darkstaff can influence its actions. In Philology, the species of the skeletal creature infused with the Darkstaff's power varies depending on the player characters' roleplaying experience tier. For lower-tier characters, it's a massiff; for medium-tier, a nexu; and for upper-tier, a gundark. Due to these variations, the "History" section of this article refrains from specifying the exact creature type empowered by the staff.

In Recursion, the player characters face several choices regarding the focusing crystals linking the disembodied Oblee to the Darkstaff. They can embrace the dark side and use the Force to allow the staff to absorb the Oblee's spirits, or they can allow the Oblee to transform into the Force or be resurrected into physical form, severing their connection to the Darkstaff. However, the Wizards.com article The Oblee confirms that the players gave the Oblee's spirits physical form, making that the canonical outcome.

During A Mon Alone, when the Darkstaff speaks to the Heroes of Cularin through the possessed slave Alianda, it offers any character who leaves the Animiasma their heart's desire. If a player attempts to comply, the Darkstaff reneges on its promise and instead incapacitates the individual. The adventure suggests that the gamemaster, who directs the roleplaying adventure, give the staff a voice reminiscent of James Earl Jones, the actor who voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.

In The Eye, during the confrontation with Len Markus at the Heart Tree, Markus may attempt to transform the giant Kilassin into Sithspawn, though he will fail. The staff may also drain the life from some of the player characters. Either one or several of the player characters then destroy the Darkstaff by channeling the light side of the Force into the artifact. If Len Markus is still alive when the artifact is vanquished, its destruction permanently severs him from the Force.