Darth Cognus

The Huntress, as she was known, was a Force-sensitive Iktotchi female who, like others of her species, naturally possessed precognition and telepathy. Her abilities greatly surpassed those of her people, and she eventually learned to focus and control her visions with remarkable precision. She could sometimes see potential futures and exert a small amount of influence over them. The dark side was also strong with the Huntress, allowing her to hamper the powers and connections of Force-users near her. She used these talents as an assassin in the years following the end of the New Sith Wars. For a period of five years, she indulged in this career, building a perfect record and gaining a reputation for exceptional mission success.

In 980 BBY, following discreet inquiries and substantial credit transfers, the Huntress was contacted by Lucia, a Human woman who served as a bodyguard to Princess Serra of the planet Doan. They convened at Paradise station, a spaceport on a minor hyperspace route branching from the Corellian Trade Spine, to discuss assassinating the leader of a militant mining organization implicated in the recent death of Serra's husband, Crown Prince Gerran. The Huntress accepted the contract and traveled to Doan, locating her target in an underground cavern. She then realized that a Jedi was present, sent to mediate between the mining caste and the Doan Royal House. Catching them off guard, the Huntress opened fire with her twin blasters, first killing Gelba, the leader of the miners, and then two more in quick succession. As chaos erupted, the Huntress began projecting her Force-dampening aura, disrupting the Jedi's powers and temporarily removing him from the conflict. The Huntress then eliminated the remaining miners, leading the weakened Jedi, a Cerean Knight named Medd Tandar, into direct confrontation. She responded with another volley of blaster fire, before the Jedi used the Force to wrench the blasters from her grasp, despite her Force-dampening aura. Undeterred, the Huntress listened as Tandar promised her a fair trial if she surrendered. However, the Force had shown her that a trial was not to be. After informing her opponent of this, she quickly exited, having set her confiscated blasters to overload. They exploded immediately after her departure, killing Medd Tandar.

Despite successfully completing her assignment, the Huntress believed she had angered Princess Serra due to the collateral damage in the form of Tandar. However, a journey with Lucia to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant revealed to Serra that her father Caleb had been killed on Ambria, supposedly by Darth Bane, the same Dark Lord of the Sith who had visited and tormented Serra and her father twenty years prior. Having learned of the Huntress's reputation from Lucia, Serra instructed her bodyguard to contact the Iktotchi woman again, this time on the Princess's behalf. Once more, the Huntress met Lucia on Paradise station, waiting in the most secluded corner of the Stolen Fortune casino for her employer. Lucia arrived shortly after, and the Huntress listened as she expressed her intention to hire the Huntress again. The Iktotchi assumed she was being contacted about more rebels, but Lucia revealed that Princess Serra wished to meet with her personally on Ambria. Handing the Huntress a datapad with the planet's location, Lucia explained that if she accepted, the Princess offered to pay three times her standard rate. After a moment of communion with the Force, the Huntress accepted.

During the journey to Ambria, the Huntress meditated for hours, learning much about her destination through the Force. However, the clarity of her visions began to fade, and all she could discern about her upcoming meeting with Serra was that it was not a trap. Her shuttle, the Stalker, landed just outside an abandoned camp, where she disembarked and met Serra. Once satisfied that the Huntress could meet her needs, Serra explained her desire to locate and capture Darth Bane, a Sith Lord who had visited Ambria years before. Through the Force, the Huntress saw Serra's childhood and adolescence with her father Caleb, as well as the faces of countless others who had come and gone from Ambria. The image of Darth Bane also appeared, along with the confrontation between him and the Princess's father, and Bane's later return with a young, blond-haired woman. Serra desperately wanted to know the details of their second meeting, and the Huntress continued her Force probe, seeing the aftermath of Caleb's violent death. She also saw another man in Caleb's former hut, driven mad by an unknown power. She knew that Bane and the young woman were still there, hidden by a magical concealing force. She was violently repelled when she attempted to breach the haze, falling to the ground and crying out in pain. The Huntress realized that Sith sorcery had prevented her from circumventing the veil, and that its power remained potent despite the passage of time. She recovered and told the anxious Princess everything she had seen, confirming that the Sith Lord had indeed returned to Ambria as Caleb had predicted.

Confident that she could locate Bane, the Huntress expressed doubts about her ability to kill a Dark Lord of the Sith. Serra clarified that she wanted Bane taken alive, prompting the Huntress to remind Serra that she was an assassin, not a bounty hunter. The Princess offered to pay her ten times her usual fee and provide a supporting team of mercenaries. Still hesitant, the Huntress asked how she was supposed to keep Bane in custody once captured. Serra led her into the shack where she and her father had lived, entering a makeshift cellar and retrieving a vial of senflax, a neurotoxin from a rare plant found only on Cadannia. Although Caleb had used it as a sedative, Serra explained that senflax's potency would allow her to maintain Bane's imprisonment. Despite being unable to see the mission's outcome, the Huntress was intrigued by the prospect of facing a Dark Lord in combat, something she felt she had been preparing for her entire life. She told the Princess that she would need at least ten well-trained commandos to complete the mission. When Serra offered twenty such individuals, all with prior military experience, the Huntress accepted.

In the days following her meeting with Princess Serra, the Huntress's sleep was disturbed by recurring dreams of Darth Bane. The Force showed her visions of his daily activities, even the daily sunrise of the world he lived on. By cross-referencing these details with a comprehensive database of systems, planets, and other celestial bodies, the Huntress determined that her target was on Ciutric IV. Accompanied by Serra's mercenary force of eight women and twelve men, led by Captain Jedder of the Doan Royal Guard, the Huntress infiltrated Darth Bane's mansion while he was away. While her team waited outside, she explored the entire estate, memorizing every detail. She deactivated all security measures, including those protecting a small building at the rear of the property. Mistaking it for an armory, the Huntress entered and found a library filled with educational materials, from datapads to scrolls on weathered parchment. She also discovered the Dark Lord's personal holocron, though she was unsure of its exact nature. Drawn to it nonetheless, she confiscated it before continuing her inspection of the estate. Once she was satisfied that the grounds were secure, the mercenaries entered to begin their preparations.

Knowing that her prey would sense something amiss upon his return, the Huntress planned to subdue him in the mansion's vestibule. On her command, sonic detonators were placed on either side of the entrance, while two mercenaries positioned themselves on the balcony with stun rifles trained on the foyer. She rejected the idea of using force pikes and carbonite guns as they required close-quarters combat. Jedder questioned the effectiveness of the tangle guns in their arsenal, but the Huntress explained that the projectiles were only meant to slow Bane down long enough for her to administer the senflax poison. Once she had done her part, the mercenaries were to overwhelm him until the senflax took effect. Captain Jedder, having heard of the Iktotchi's precognitive abilities, asked if they would all survive the encounter. She replied that some of them might, but refrained from telling Jedder that she had seen his mangled corpse on the mansion's marble floor.

Darth Bane returned shortly after, immediately sensing the intruders, as the Huntress had predicted. She held position at the end of the upstairs hallway, projecting her Force-dampening aura as the sonic detonators activated. The mercenaries then attacked Bane, and the Huntress's Force suppression, while not stopping him completely, hindered him enough to be hit by several stun bolts. He recovered quickly, killing three mercenaries with Force lightning before evading the tangle guns and leaping onto the balcony. Face to face with Darth Bane, the Huntress feinted with her senflax-covered knives, distracting the Dark Lord from a series of flash grenade detonations at his feet. Still emanating her Force suppression, the Huntress kicked him over the balcony and pursued, carving a deep wound into his arm with her senflax-coated blades before he recovered. The Huntress retreated to the balcony, but her opponent quickly dealt with more mercenaries and returned to face her. After a brief exchange, the Huntress attacked, only to be thrown from the balcony by a strong Force push. Bane followed, but the senflax then took effect. He collapsed unconscious upon landing, and the Huntress immediately called for a cease-fire. At least six mercenaries were dead, including Jedder, and the Huntress ordered the survivors to prepare for departure, having foreseen the imminent arrival of the Dark Lord's blond companion. After removing anything that could implicate Princess Serra, the Huntress collected her prisoner and his belongings before leaving the mansion and Ciutric IV with the surviving mercenaries.

Upon arriving on Doan, the Huntress transferred Darth Bane to Serra, who imprisoned him in the planet's notorious Stone Prison. The Iktotchi chose to stay with the captive, and while the surviving mercenaries and Lucia awaited instructions from Serra, the Huntress meditated quietly in a corner of the room next to Bane's cell. The Princess arrived shortly after, and the Huntress insisted on entering the cell with her and Lucia. Bane was then subjected to torture and interrogation by Serra, who repeatedly demanded he admit responsibility for her father's death. When he denied it, the Huntress reminded Serra of the blond woman from her visions, suggesting she may have been responsible for Caleb's demise. The Huntress reveled in Bane's agony as the torment continued, before Serra, frustrated by his defiance, left to compose herself.

Curious about Serra's next move, the Huntress followed the oblivious Princess, who only noticed her stalker after stopping. The Huntress, preoccupied with Serra's reaction to Darth Bane's denials, warned that the Princess had missed her opportunity for revenge. She refused Serra's dismissal, expressing interest in what would happen when Bane escaped. Serra vowed that the Sith would never leave, but the Huntress revealed that Lucia had betrayed her by helping him escape. Serra couldn't understand why the assassin hadn't told her sooner, and the Huntress cited that her contract only required capturing the Sith Lord. She delighted in the Princess's despair, smiling as she fled to verify the Iktotchi's claim. Lucia appeared moments later, and the Huntress disclosed that she had alerted Serra to Lucia's treachery. As the bodyguard ran off to find her mistress, the Huntress envisioned the destruction of the Stone Prison and hurried to the hangar bay, only to hesitate even as the alarms sounded. She felt her life had been meaningless until then, and something in the Force told her that the truth of her destiny was about to be revealed.

Waiting in the hangar, the Huntress noticed a silver-haired man preparing to steal her ship. She startled him, warning him to leave the vessel alone, and was met with his ignited lightsaber. She easily evaded the attack and faced the man who claimed to be Jedi Knight Medd Tandar. The Huntress wasn't fooled, exposing his lie while mocking him. The man tried to blast her with Force energy but was instantly crippled by her Force-stifling aura. She attacked with twin vibroblades, but he evaded her, and the Huntress, thrilled by the hunt, gave chase. Despite her efforts, she couldn't catch him as he hid between the ships. She barely dodged his thrown lightsaber, which severed a portion of one of her horns. She continued to stalk him, but the alarm's pitch changed, and the Huntress knew she was running out of time. She eventually found him, but both were tired of the chase, and conceded that they would die if the stalemate continued. Grudgingly, the Huntress allowed the man to escape in one of the shuttles. At that moment, the formerly captive Darth Bane appeared. Knowing he still considered her an enemy, the Huntress knelt and presented his lightsaber and holocron as a gesture of amnesty. The wary Sith Lord retrieved his belongings and demanded to know her intentions. Since first sensing him on Ambria, the Huntress had repeatedly seen him in her visions, and while she believed their fates were intertwined, she was certain she wasn't destined to die by his hand. She pledged to serve him absolutely if he taught her the ways of the Sith and promised to deliver Princess Serra to him. He accepted, and the pair fled the Stone Prison in the Stalker.

Knowing that Princess Serra would flee to Ambria, the Huntress plotted the Stalker's course for the Inner Rim. En route, she discussed her Force visions with Darth Bane and how they had led her to his home on Ciutric IV. When questioned about the accuracy of her visions, the Huntress professed that her instincts were rarely wrong and that she anticipated Serra's return to the desert world. She was correct; when the Stalker landed near Caleb's former camp, an unperturbed Serra emerged from the hut to confront the Dark Lord. During their conversation, Serra tried to dissuade the Huntress from embracing the dark side, but was denied. When the Iktotchi determined that the Princess was of no use to the Sith, she was granted permission by Darth Bane to end Serra's life, whose corpse she then buried nearby.

That fateful evening, the Huntress and the Dark Lord engaged in a discussion regarding the necessary sacrifices for her complete integration into the Sith Order. Lacking both family and friends to forsake, and with material wealth holding no significance, her sole aspiration was to attain an existence far surpassing her current one. Inspired by Darth Bane, she resolved to adopt a new name, symbolizing her rebirth as a Sith. She selected "Cognus," a name reflecting her aptitude for divination. Delighted by her choice, the Dark Lord bestowed upon her the title of "Darth," while cautioning that her formal training would be contingent upon resolving the situation with his existing Sith apprentice. He then inquired whether Cognus' visions had revealed the outcome of his impending confrontation with the blond woman. The Iktotchi responded that her visions concerning their battle were inconclusive, depicting him as both victor and vanquished. Bane deduced that the ambiguity of Cognus' visions stemmed from his apprentice having attained parity with him. As he departed to summon his student for their final confrontation, Cognus was left to contemplate his words. She anticipated the blond woman's arrival with substantial reinforcements to secure her triumph, but Bane dismissed this notion and provided a preliminary explanation of his Rule of Two. Understanding dawned upon her, and she pledged to abstain from intervening when the blond woman made her appearance.

Moments later, Bane's apprentice materialized, exiting her shuttle with suspicion upon noticing Darth Cognus, whose non-interference in the imminent battle Bane had assured. Expressing impartiality, Cognus declared her desire to learn from a genuine Sith Master and vowed to serve whichever combatant emerged victorious. Battle commenced swiftly as Cognus observed, the combatants' weapons moving at speeds exceeding her eyes' capacity to follow. Just as it appeared that Zannah had gained the upper hand, a sudden, intense red light forced her to avert her gaze. Sensing a tremendous surge of energy, Cognus realized that Darth Bane's spirit had somehow been separated from his physical form and was attempting to possess the blond woman. Upon looking back, she witnessed Darth Bane reduced to ashes, while the blond woman, though disoriented, remained alive. As the woman regained her composure, Cognus, uncertain whether Bane had succeeded, called out his name, only to be answered by Darth Zannah, the new Dark Lord of the Sith, who informed the Iktotchi that Bane was gone and that she was now the Master. Cognus introduced herself and recounted how Bane had encouraged her to adopt a new name to signify her Sith identity, but had yet to fully elucidate his guiding Rule of Two. Darth Zannah pledged to complete Cognus' training and instructed her to claim Bane's lightsaber until she could construct her own. Her new Master then revealed that as the chosen successor to the Sith legacy, Cognus would eventually face Zannah in a final, decisive battle from which only one would emerge alive.

Later in her life, Cognus acquired her own apprentice, the three-eyed mutant Human known as Darth Millennial. Cognus, a firm believer in Bane's principles, frequently clashed with her apprentice regarding the necessity of the Rule of Two. Millennial deemed the Rule of Two overly restrictive, ultimately leading the Iktotchi to expel him for his heresy. Millennial narrowly escaped Cognus' wrath and fled to Dromund Kaas, where he established the Dark Force religion. Meanwhile, Darth Cognus remained committed to Bane's path and selected a new apprentice in accordance with the Order of Sith Lords.

The Huntress was an Iktotchi female, characterized by her red skin, piercing yellow eyes, sharp, pointed teeth, and the plump fingers common among her species. She typically wore black robes, which, when the hood was lowered, revealed cranial horns that tapered just above her shoulders. Her chin bore four black tattoos, shaped like pointed lines extending downward from her lower lip. The Huntress thrived on the suffering of others, deriving pleasure from witnessing it firsthand. She reveled in observing Bane's torture at Serra's hands, as well as Serra's reaction upon learning of Lucia's betrayal. While in the Stolen Fortune casino, she displayed keen interest in the bloody arena deathmatch between a terbeast and an Endorian boar-wolf, even when Lucia was compelled to turn away from the gruesome spectacle. Lucia considered the Huntress graceful and elegant, concluding that she would have been beautiful were it not for her sadistic tendencies. The Huntress remained indifferent to the concepts of "good" and "evil," yet was intrigued by the factors that led individuals to apply such labels to others.

The Huntress took offense to the designation of bounty hunter, as she considered herself an accomplished assassin, taking pride in the flawless record she had maintained throughout her five-year career. However, when confronted with the choice between killing Set Harth at great personal risk or abandoning the pursuit to ensure her survival, her survival instinct outweighed her bloodlust. As a hired killer, she felt no emotional attachment to her targets, ensuring that her personal feelings never interfered with her professional conduct. Although she accepted credits as payment for her services, the Huntress had no interest in material possessions or wealth. Instead, she sought a purpose to what she perceived as an otherwise meaningless existence.

The Huntress recognized the power of the Sith and held it in high regard. Despite her enthusiasm for the opportunity, she did not overestimate her ability to defeat a Sith Lord on her own. Nevertheless, she accepted Serra's offer to locate Darth Bane, believing that their destinies were intertwined. She understood that the path to the power she craved lay through the Sith and readily offered herself to both Bane and Zannah, anticipating the day when she would wield the might of the dark side. Darth Bane noted her intelligence and wisdom on several occasions, and he was pleased with her choice of the Sith name "Cognus," which, in his view, signified her recognition of the superiority of her mental abilities over her combat skills. Upon becoming a Sith Master, Darth Cognus remained deeply committed to Darth Bane's philosophies, adhering to the training of a single apprentice as dictated by the Rule of Two. Her first apprentice, Darth Millennial, explored principles that contradicted those of the Order of Sith Lords, leading Darth Cognus to repeatedly express her disapproval before ultimately banishing him.

While the Huntress possessed the inherent telepathic and precognitive abilities of her species, her abilities far surpassed the fleeting visions experienced by other Iktotchi. Early in life, she learned to assemble and direct her visions, which often manifested as dreams or during meditation. With sufficient focus, the Huntress could use the Force to perceive the past of a person or place, and she could also glimpse potential futures. She could usually interpret the meanings of her visions, but sometimes the futures she saw were so chaotic that she struggled to understand them. Nevertheless, her talents proved invaluable in her profession as an assassin. Thanks to her heightened extrasensory perception, she consistently located her targets. When Darth Bane recognized the Huntress' prophetic abilities, he speculated that with proper Sith training, she could perceive all possible futures, prepare for unexpected events, and even manipulate events to her advantage.

The Huntress also possessed an innate ability to disrupt and suppress the use of the Force in others. Those with little or no affinity for the dark side felt nauseated by the sudden stifling sensation of the Huntress' power and experienced a significant reduction in their ability to manipulate the Force. Her power even surprised Darth Bane, but the Dark Lord was able to overcome the Huntress' Force-hampering once he identified its source.

The Huntress possessed extensive knowledge of weaponry, including sonic detonators, force pikes, tangle guns, and stun and carbonite rifles. In addition to her two blaster pistols, the Huntress employed bladed weapons in combat, carrying twin vibroblades that she wielded with great skill. She also used two long, thin-bladed knives when attempting to administer the senflax poison. She was intrigued by lightsabers but lacked experience with them, leading her to abandon the idea of using Darth Bane's lightsaber against the skilled Set Harth. The Iktotchi was proficient in infiltration and also possessed slicing skills.

Darth Cognus was the creation of Abel G. Peña, who initially mentioned her – albeit without a name – as Darth Millennial's Sith Master in the fifth installment of The Dark Forces Saga, entitled Two Peas in a Pod. Peña later named her in Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties, an online supplement written for the eighty-eighth issue of Star Wars Insider. Darth Andeddu was initially considered as a potential Master for Darth Millennial, but Peña had to abandon this idea because the concept of Millennial's Master being female had already been approved by Lucasfilm. He believed that the names Cognus and Millennial accurately reflected their relationship, comparing it to that of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, with Cognus representing the latter.

Although Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties did not explicitly state Cognus' gender, Peña himself envisioned the character as female, a fact later confirmed in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. Peña had specific ideas regarding Darth Cognus' appearance and collaborated closely with artist Chris Trevas on the character's visual design. He envisioned Darth Millennial viewing Cognus as a succubus and wanted her visual representation to reflect this. Peña's ideas included lips with a "full Jolie quality," a "vampiresque" snarl, and Sith tattoos similar to those of the Miraluka Dark Jedi Jerec. Trevas subsequently illustrated a female Darth Cognus for The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia based on Peña's concepts. Despite this, Darth Cognus' entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia mistakenly identified her as male. Darth Cognus later received a comprehensive portrayal in the third novel of the Darth Bane Trilogy, titled Dynasty of Evil, which explored several aspects of her backstory in greater detail. Lucasfilm official Leland Chee stated on his blog that Cognus' name is derived from the word "cognizance," signifying "awareness, knowledge, and perception."