Darth Maladi

Malincha's origins trace back to the planet of Devaron, where she was born as the daughter of a Devaronian Jedi. In Malincha's early years, the Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Krayt arrived on her homeworld and killed both of her parents. Recognizing Malincha's inherent Force sensitivity, the Dark Lord took her to be raised on Korriban and undergo training in the ways of the dark side of the Force. In contrast to her parent's emphasis on emotional restraint, Darth Krayt instructed the Devaronian girl to embrace feelings of anger, fear, and pain.

In time, Malincha adopted the name Darth Maladi and became a prominent Sith Lady within Krayt's One Sith Order. Her areas of expertise included science and Yuuzhan Vong bioengineering, along with various forms of Sith mysticism. Maladi also served as the One Sith's primary physician, utilizing her medical skills to treat the injuries sustained by her fellow Sith Lords in battle. Her most notable patient was Darth Krayt himself, whom Maladi sought to cure of a Yuuzhan Vong slave seed infestation that was causing his body to deteriorate. Beyond her scientific pursuits, Darth Maladi excelled in espionage and clandestine operations. As a skilled intelligence agent, she was appointed Director of Sith Intelligence and Assassination, overseeing a larger and more influential spy network than any other member of the One Sith.

Leading up to 127 ABY, the New Jedi Order and the Yuuzhan Vong collaborated on a project to Vongform—a type of terraforming—the planet Ossus. Ossus had been devastated by a supernova over 4,000 years prior, but it now served as the location of the Jedi's training center. This initiative was spearheaded by Yuuzhan Vong Master Shaper Nei Rin and Kol Skywalker, a descendant of Grand Master Luke Skywalker and a senior member of the Jedi Council. The project initially proved successful and expanded to other worlds ravaged by the Yuuzhan Vong War or previously left desolate.

Recognizing an opportunity to disrupt the Galactic Alliance, the dominant interplanetary government at the time, with which the Jedi were aligned, Darth Krayt authorized Maladi to sabotage the project. The Sith aimed to erode the galaxy's trust in the Yuuzhan Vong, who were already viewed with suspicion due to the lives lost during the war they had initiated, and to cast doubt on the Jedi by extension, who had entrusted the aliens with the Vongforming of the devastated worlds. Maladi traveled to Wayland and mutated the Yorik-Kul coral seeds used by the Yuuzhan Vong to cultivate vegetation on the devastated worlds. Consequently, sentients on these planets began developing bony growths on their skin, which could potentially prove fatal. During this period, Maladi contacted High Moff Morlish Veed, the leader of the Council of Moffs, and persuaded him and his associate, Moff Nyna Calixte, to ally the Empire, led by Emperor Roan Fel, with the Sith when they chose to reveal themselves.

Maladi's successful sabotage of the Ossus Project triggered the destabilization of the Galactic Alliance. The Empire, along with the majority of the galaxy's inhabitants, immediately blamed the Yuuzhan Vong, leading planets to align themselves with the enraged Empire. As a consequence of Maladi's deception, the Imperial Moffs convinced Fel to initiate war in 127 ABY. A year into the conflict, Krayt's Sith Order decided to reveal their presence. The alliance that Maladi had forged with Veed and the impatient Moff Council, who were desperate to secure victory in the war, left Fel with no option but to align with the Sith. Throughout the war, Fel's support remained lukewarm, and he only participated out of political necessity.

After the Empire had captured Coruscant, Maladi, Veed, and Calixte orchestrated an attack on the New Jedi Temple on Ossus, despite Fel's prohibition of attacks on the Jedi. The successful assault on Ossus resulted in the deaths of most of the Jedi present, although a group of Padawans, including Cade Skywalker and Shado Vao, and the Zabrak Jedi Master Wolf Sazen, managed to escape. The attack effectively decimated the New Jedi Order, although Imperial statistics indicated that half of the Jedi had survived the Sith's onslaught, much to the dismay of Veed, who believed that they should have waited for the entire Order to gather on Ossus to ensure their complete annihilation. Maladi firmly believed that staging a later attack would have been unsuccessful, and that bounty hunters and the Sith could eliminate the remaining Jedi.

Krayt and Maladi then shifted their focus to ousting Roan Fel, who had never genuinely supported the war, and installing Krayt on the throne. From the moment the Sith had allied with the Empire, Fel remained distrustful of their Order and never fully embraced them as allies. To secure Veed's support for the coup, Maladi led him to believe that he would be Fel's successor. However, Calixte, Veed's associate, recognized that Maladi intended to deceive Veed into serving Krayt.

Fearing that she might become expendable, Calixte revealed to Fel that the Sith were planning to kill him. Fel, in turn, fled Coruscant, leaving a double in his place and assigning four Imperial Knights to protect the decoy. When Krayt, accompanied by his Hand Darth Nihl, his most trusted servant Darth Wyyrlok, and Maladi, arrived to assassinate Fel, the Dark Lord instead killed Fel's impostor. Maladi witnessed the execution of the decoy and the Imperial Knights guarding him, as well as Krayt's announcement that he was now Emperor. Krayt also compelled the Moffs, including Veed and Calixte, to pledge their allegiance to him.

However, Krayt soon realized that he had only killed Fel's double, not the actual Emperor. Krayt summoned Maladi and Force pushed her to the ground as punishment for failing to discover that Fel had replaced himself, given her position as the head of Sith Intelligence. Krayt explained that Fel could have resisted the coup if he had been present, and that his continued survival posed a threat to Krayt's power by potentially uniting a military resistance against the Sith. Consequently, Krayt tasked Maladi and Nihl with identifying Imperial commanders and Moffs who remained loyal to Fel, as well as hunting down the remaining Jedi, whom Krayt believed could ally with Fel to overthrow the Sith.

Maladi decided to confront Calixte, locating her in her living quarters. Maladi revealed that they had killed Fel's double and that she suspected Calixte of assisting the real Fel's escape. Calixte quickly denied these accusations, asserting that she alone could unite the Moffs, an objective Maladi needed to accomplish in order to find and kill Fel. Maladi contemplated using the Force to dissect Calixte's mind and uncover the truth of her plans and intentions, but ultimately decided to work with her instead. Maladi then appointed Calixte to lead Imperial Intelligence, but also instructed her to report all security and espionage matters to Maladi herself and the Sith.

For seven years after Darth Krayt killed Fel's double and seized control of the Empire, Maladi and her agents were unsuccessful in locating the real Roan Fel or eradicating the remaining Jedi. Fel and his allies launched guerrilla attacks on Krayt's Empire, although they inflicted no significant damage, while the Jedi remained hidden. Despite being the ruler of the Empire, Krayt believed that Fel's continued existence posed a threat to his power. Growing weary of the endless search for the former Emperor, Krayt attempted to threaten Fel's daughter, Marasiah, hoping that a frightened Princess would lead them to her father's hiding place. However, the plan failed, as Marasiah managed to escape the Sith's grasp with the assistance of a former Jedi named Cade Skywalker.

Upon learning of the existence of a Skywalker, Darth Krayt instructed Maladi to find him. Members of the Skywalker family were known for their exceptional strength in the Force, and, based on the actions of the former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who had fallen to the Dark side over 150 years earlier, Krayt believed that Skywalker could also be tempted to embrace the dark side. Krayt recognized that turning Skywalker would be a valuable asset to his Empire. Furthermore, Skywalker's powerful healing abilities had come to Krayt's attention, making him even more valuable, as Krayt's body was deteriorating due to Yorik-kul implants. Skywalker possessed the potential to cure Krayt of his ailment, allowing him to live long enough to stabilize the galaxy.

In her pursuit of Skywalker, Maladi interrogated and tortured the Bothan Jedi Knight Hosk Trey'lis, who had been delivered to the Sith for the bounty placed on living Jedi. Trey'lis's significance stemmed not only from his status as a Jedi but also from the fact that Cade Skywalker had been the one to hunt him down. Trey'lis was unable to withstand Maladi's ruthless interrogation and torture methods, eventually revealing everything he knew about young Skywalker, including his abilities in the Force and the identities of his companions, Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue. Armed with this information, Maladi ordered Calixte to personally oversee the search and bring Skywalker back alive. When Calixte attempted to learn more about Skywalker, including why the Sith wanted him alive, Maladi only revealed that he was the last remaining Skywalker. After Calixte left the interrogation laboratory, Maladi pondered the reasons why Skywalker needed to be captured alive.

Calixte revealed to her associate, High Moff Veed, her mission to capture Skywalker, and he proposed that they should capture Skywalker and use him as a pawn against the Sith. However, Maladi had replaced Calixte's operatives with her own, forcing Calixte to use her alternate persona, "Morrigan Corde," to further her own agenda. Calixte had already discovered that Skywalker was on The Wheel, a neutral space station in the Mid Rim. However, one of Maladi's dispatched agents, Jor Torlin, also learned that Skywalker was on The Wheel through his associate, Haako. Upon arriving at The Wheel, the two agents discovered that Skywalker had left the station. Torlin suggested to Calixte, disguised as Corde, that Skywalker may have gone to Ossus, where he had trained as a Jedi. However, upon arriving on Ossus, the disguised Calixte killed Torlin. She did not want to capture Skywalker, who was secretly her own son, and covertly betrayed Maladi to keep Skywalker out of the Sith's reach.

Meanwhile, Maladi finally uncovered Fel's location—the deposed Emperor had seized control of the Empire's former capital planet of Bastion without resistance, as the Imperial troops stationed there had turned against the Sith Empire and joined what was known as the "True Empire," loyal solely to Fel.

Maladi recognized that the Sith could not launch a direct assault on Bastion due to its formidable military defenses. She devised an alternative plan to eliminate Fel: she contacted the Imperial governor of Munto Codru, Vikar Dorn, and dispatched him aboard the Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer Dauntless to Bastion, instructing him to feign desertion and join the rebels. The intention was to allow Sith Lord Darth Kruhl, who was secretly aboard the Dauntless, to infiltrate Bastion and personally assassinate the deposed Emperor. However, this plan was merely a ruse orchestrated by Maladi to weaken Fel's personal defenses in preparation for a future assassination attempt. Fel subsequently killed Kruhl and executed the crew of the Dauntless, sparing Dorn's life so that he could deliver Kruhl's lightsaber to the Sith as a message. Dorn complied, but Maladi killed him afterward due to his apparent failure.

The quest to locate Cade Skywalker turned out to be less challenging than anticipated, as he made the decision to free Hosk Trey'lis from the clutches of the Sith Temple. Skywalker successfully liberated Trey'lis from the temple; however, both individuals were subsequently apprehended by Krayt's enforcers, Darth Nihl and Darth Talon. Following Skywalker's imprisonment, Maladi informed the Moff Council that their search for Skywalker had concluded. She withheld the information regarding Skywalker's capture, assuring Calixte that she did not require knowledge of the search's outcome and instructing the Moff Council to resume their prior duties.

Within the confines of the Sith Temple, Maladi personally subjected Skywalker to torture, aiming to draw him closer to the dark side's influence. During this ordeal, Maladi discovered that Skywalker possessed the ability to cleanse himself of a potentially fatal dose of the narcotic ixetal cilona, to which he was addicted. Maladi remarked to Krayt that Skywalker manipulated the drug to his advantage, akin to a Sith. Upon Krayt's command, Maladi implanted mutated Yorik-Kul coral seeds within Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn. This was done so Skywalker could demonstrate his healing abilities to Krayt in order to save them. Maladi employed Force lightning on Skywalker's companions to trigger the mutation within the seeds. Skywalker responded as expected by healing them. Through this act, he edged closer to the dark side and began to consider Krayt's offer of Sith apprenticeship.

When Krayt summoned Skywalker to his private chambers to further the Jedi's fall into darkness, he instructed Wyyrlok to deny entry to Nihl and Maladi. Observing Nihl's resentment towards Krayt's decision, Maladi offered him counsel. Nihl voiced his dissatisfaction with the preferential treatment Darth Krayt gave to Talon, who had recently become Krayt's hand. Nihl felt he was more deserving of Krayt's attention due to his greater experience as Krayt's hand. Maladi reminded Nihl that, unlike Talon, he was not born a Sith and was only intended to serve as Krayt's fist. In response, Nihl pointed out that Maladi, despite being born a Sith, was also excluded from the chamber. She claimed she did not question Krayt's choices, except for his decision to keep Skywalker alive.

Later, when Skywalker feigned allegiance to the Sith, both Maladi and Nihl discussed Krayt's fixation on him. Nihl suggested that if Krayt were to die without an heir, a power struggle would ensue, potentially leading to Skywalker's ascension as Krayt's successor. Maladi disagreed and cautioned Nihl when she realized his arguments were based on information gleaned from holocrons that were prohibited within Krayt's order.

However, Krayt's aspiration to have Skywalker willingly embrace the Sith never came to fruition. Calixte, still disguised as Morrigan Corde, rescued Skywalker from the Sith Temple, and together they fled Coruscant. Maladi, having been deceived twice by Calixte, remained unaware of her involvement in Skywalker's liberation.

Following Skywalker's escape, Maladi attended to the severe injuries inflicted upon Nihl and Talon during his departure. Krayt, enraged by Nihl's failure, replaced him with Darth Stryfe, who had been serving as Krayt's fist. Upon discovering Nihl's severed arm, a casualty of Skywalker's escape, Maladi inquired of Krayt whether she should reattach it. Krayt instructed Maladi to instead replace Nihl's arm with an organic Yuuzhan Vong limb and to place Talon in a healing trance to prevent her death.

Krayt commanded the Sith to locate Skywalker once more, as he still required his healing abilities. After his escape, Skywalker, Syn, and Blue reclaimed the Grinning Liar, a starship they had borrowed, from the pirate Rav, their former employer, following a brief conflict. Defeated, Rav contacted Maladi, swearing the Bloody Bones oath of loyalty and promising to provide any information regarding Skywalker in exchange for credits.

During the pursuit of Cade Skywalker, one of Krayt's subordinates, a Devaronian Sith known as Darth Reave, encountered the Human and his allies on the Imperial planet of Had Abaddon. During the confrontation, Reave was attacked by a female Jedi, who employed ancient Sith alchemy to transform Reave's stormtroopers into grotesque mutants. Realizing his disadvantage, Reave retreated to Coruscant to report on the Jedi woman, her monsters, and Cade Skywalker's presence on Had Abaddon. However, before completing his report, Reave himself transformed into one of the mutants he had encountered, only to be swiftly slain by Darth Stryfe. Lady Maladi informed her Lord of the rakghouls; a form of sithspawn that had plagued the planet Taris millennia ago. Maladi expressed surprise at Reave's transformation, as rakghouls had been considered extinct for millennia, yet Reave had clearly encountered and been bitten by one.

Subsequently, Krayt was summoned to Had Abaddon by the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Karness Muur, who resided within an amulet possessed by a Jedi named Celeste Morne. Using Morne as a vessel to interact with the living world, Muur instructed the Dark Lord to come alone, lest he and Skywalker, whom Muur held captive, be killed. Nevertheless, Maladi accompanied her Master to the Deep Core world alongside Lords Stryfe, Wyyrlok, and Talon.

Upon arriving on Had Abaddon, the Sith were greeted by Karness Muur, disguised as the Jedi Celeste Morne, who immediately reprimanded Krayt for disobeying his instructions. However, Morne had maintained control of herself, and it was soon revealed that Krayt and his party had fallen into a trap. Skywalker, who had been visibly held captive, revealed his lightsaber, and combat ensued as his Jedi and Imperial Knight allies ambushed the Sith. Maladi was surprised by her inability to sense the Force auras of Skywalker and his companions, as she was attacked by the Twi'lek Jedi Shado Vao. Maladi immediately unleashed torrents of Force lightning at Vao, which he absorbed with the blades of his lightsaber. Maladi was unable to overcome him, and before she could find an opportunity to do so, Darth Krayt called a halt to the conflict.

However, Muur, through Celeste Morne's physical form, attacked Krayt again, while commanding their rakghouls to engage everyone else. Maladi broke off her duel with Vao to defend herself, slaying several of the sithspawn in the process. She then watched her Master battle the possessed Jedi and joined him, both unleashing storms of Sith lightning upon Morne. Maladi's assistance proved ineffective, as both she and Krayt were defeated by the combined strength of Muur/Morne. The electric backlash rendered Maladi unconscious, while Krayt was stabbed through the chest by Azlyn Rae. Muur/Morne then Force-pushed Krayt off a cliff, where he seemingly perished. Maladi was later seen recovering alongside Darths Stryfe and Talon, having been rescued with Lord Krayt's body by Darth Wyyrlok.

Afterward, Maladi and the other Sith Lords returned to Coruscant, where Wyyrlok announced to the Moffs that Emperor Krayt had been severely injured and would remain in stasis on Korriban until recovering. He also announced that he would take control of the Sith. One of Wyyrlok's first actions was to name Grand Admiral Veed Regent of the Empire, a public figurehead who would report to Wyyrlok and follow his orders.

Despite Darth Wyyrlok's claim that Darth Krayt had survived the encounter on Had Abbadon, Darth Maladi held a different belief. She suspected that Wyyrlok was merely consolidating his power, intending to eliminate any Sith he perceived as threats to his plans. In her opinion, Wyyrlok was a coward unfit to lead the One Sith. She returned to Wayland, the site where she had originally conceived the sabotage of the Ossus Project, and invited Darth Nihl to her laboratory to share her concerns. Initially skeptical of Maladi's motives, Nihl was eventually persuaded to travel to Korriban to verify whether the Dark Lord was truly alive or dead and, upon discovering the truth, to act as he saw fit.

Believing that Darth Krayt's successor should possess both leadership experience and the ability to command the Sith, Maladi began developing a new bioweapon designed to stabilize the One Sith through fear of the new Dark Lord's power. Once completed, Maladi required a non-Sith individual strong enough in the dark side of the Force to serve as her test subject. Maladi considered Cade Skywalker the ideal specimen and paid the Feeorin pirate Rav one million credits to lure Skywalker to her Wayland laboratory. Upon arrival, Skywalker discovered that Maladi had abducted his friend, Deliah Blue, who was being tortured through a Yuuzhan Vong Embrace of Pain and had been grafted with a Vong bioform that resisted Skywalker's Dark transfer ability, causing excruciating pain to its host when exposed to the Force.

Maladi appeared and explained her plans to Skywalker, citing Blue's suffering as the means to fuel Skywalker's rage sufficiently to serve Maladi's needs. After revealing that Blue's survival depended on his acceptance, Skywalker agreed, pleasing Darth Maladi. After enduring Maladi's torture and experiments, Skywalker succumbed to his anger and revealed Maladi's own fear: the loss of control over her creations. Skywalker then demanded that Maladi fear him. After grabbing her by the neck, Maladi shoved him back with a strong Force push and set the laboratory to detonate, leaving Skywalker and his friends to die.

Maladi was later discovered aboard a Vong ship in a comatose state by an Imperial frigate loyal to Roan Fel. Hogrum Chalk, the Emperor's head of Intelligence, had her secretly transported to and imprisoned on Bastion, where she awoke in a fragile, paranoid state, a consequence of Skywalker's mental assault. She requested an audience with Emperor Fel, claiming that Darth Krayt had survived despite her attempts to ensure his demise, and sought refuge from the empire-in-exile. She offered him Omega Red, a biotoxin she claimed could destroy a planet, in exchange for Cade Skywalker's head. Fel questioned her sincerity, hesitant to unleash such devastation, and threatened to deliver Maladi to Skywalker instead. Chalk, however, saw the weapon as an opportunity to end the war and save lives by sterilizing Korriban of all Sith. The Emperor refused to be branded a pariah for employing the same tactics as the enemy. He ordered Chalk to keep Maladi's capture secret, and she remained in her cell.

Shortly after, Darth Krayt learned of the Jedi's hidden temple on Taivas and prepared to eliminate them. Emperor Fel's forces joined the Jedi in a trap set for the Sith, but they were defeated in the subsequent attack, a counter-trap designed by Krayt. Desperate to defeat the Sith, Fel approached Maladi again and agreed to her initial offer, provided she first proved her claim.

While Roan Fel and his allies prepared for a final battle on Coruscant, Maladi completed the Omega Red bioweapon. However, her promise to Fel was a deception; when detonated, her weapon would incinerate all enemies of the One Sith, while the followers of the dark side would be immune. She was soon visited by the emperor and presented the toxin, guaranteeing its lethality against an entire planetary population in a few breaths. Maladi then secretly escaped to rejoin her comrades, silently confirming to Darth Krayt that she had completed her true mission.

As the emperor's flagship, the Jagged Fel, entered the battle above Coruscant, Roan Fel succumbed to the dark side in his determination to use Maladi's bioweapon, only to be thwarted and defeated in combat by his Imperial Knights. The One Sith were routed on all fronts in their final stand on Coruscant, during which Darth Krayt was killed in a duel with Cade Skywalker. He was succeeded by Darth Nihl, who ordered the retreat of all forces to predetermined locations. Under the Nagai Dark Lord, an alternative approach to his predecessor's dream was adopted: secrecy, deception, and infiltration would replace open warfare. Maladi retreated to a secret laboratory, where she continued her work until she was needed.

Darth Maladi, like most Sith in Darth Krayt's New Sith Order, demonstrated unwavering obedience to her Master. She consistently executed his orders, though she occasionally questioned some of Krayt's decisions, such as his desire to keep Cade Skywalker alive. Maladi frequently engaged in torture and took pride in successfully extracting information, as evidenced by her acquisition of information about Skywalker from Hosk Trey'lis. Maladi often controlled sentients, issuing commands to Nyna Calixte and Trey'lis, mirroring her Master Krayt's behavior.

As the head of Sith Intelligence and Assassination, Maladi excelled at manipulating individuals without relying on the Force. Alongside Krayt, she orchestrated the Sith–Imperial War by manipulating Morlish Veed into an alliance with the Sith, falsely promising him the position of Emperor, while instead placing him in servitude to Krayt. She routinely disseminated falsehoods and easily detected deception directed at her. Her manipulative skills were widely recognized, and her enemies regarded her statements with skepticism. Maladi resented comparisons to fellow Sith scientist Vul Isen, whose poisons she deemed inferior, and she refused to collaborate with him.

Maladi delighted in plotting the downfall of others. She molded Darth Kruhl into the perfect assassin, willing to die to kill Roan Fel. When that attempt failed, Maladi revealed that Kruhl was part of a larger scheme to assassinate Roan Fel and that she planned to mold another assassin to deliver the final blow. However, her scheming sometimes blinded her, and she became so engrossed in the intricacies of her plans that she almost lost sight of her Krayt-given objective: to eliminate Roan Fel. On one occasion, Krayt had to remind her to remain focused on her goal before she became too consumed by plotting. She was ruthless in this pursuit and did not tolerate the failures of her subordinates, as demonstrated when she executed Vikar Dorn for his blunder during the assassination attempt on Emperor Fel's life.

Maladi also expressed confidence in the stability of the New Sith Order, believing it to be more successful than previous Sith organizations. Nyna Calixte, however, believed that the present-day Sith resembled the Sith of old and that this similarity would lead to the downfall of Maladi and the rest of the Sith. She was cold, calculating, and willing to commit unspeakable acts if they served her agenda. She maintained complete control over her emotions, including her fears, the greatest of which was the loss of control over her scientific creations.

While most females of her species possessed abundant white fur, Maladi's hair was black and limited to her head due to genetic factors. Maladi's eyes were yellow.

Darth Maladi, a Sith trained from birth in the New Sith Order, was a skilled lightsaber combatant. Maladi demonstrated considerable dexterity when employing her lightsaber skills. During duels, she emphasized powerful Force attacks supported by her bladework, making her a formidable opponent. This was evident during her engagement with the Twi'lek Jedi Shado Vao on Had Abaddon, where she attacked him with Force lightning. Vao defended against the lightning with his weapon, but it kept him at bay, and neither Jedi nor Sith gained an advantage. Maladi was confident in her detection abilities and acknowledged that Vao, Skywalker, and the Imperial Knights were able to completely conceal their Force presences from her.

Maladi specialized in torture and assassination. Through the use of specialized torture droids, she successfully extracted information about Cade Skywalker from Hosk Trey'lis, a Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order. Maladi was a master of espionage, assassination, and interrogation, highly skilled in both Sith alchemy and Yuuzhan Vong bioengineering. She possessed knowledge of the Memory Walk technique, which she used to attack Cade Skywalker's mind on Wayland. When he used the same technique to defeat her, she eventually regained her composure and resumed her work after the defeat of the One Sith's Maine forces.

Maladi's skill with Force applications was comparable to that of her fellow Sith. She was proficient in Force lightning, having successfully attacked both Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue with it while torturing Cade Skywalker. Maladi also possessed mastery over Sith alchemy, which, combined with her Vongsense, enabled her to mutate Yuuzhan Vong coral seeds into fatal, painful sores on sentients and perform other manipulations of the extragalactic material. She used her abilities to sabotage the Ossus Project, initiating the Sith–Imperial War, and created Omega Red, which she considered the perfected form of the extremely lethal Alpha Red.

Like other Sith, Darth Maladi wielded a red-bladed lightsaber, which she used during combat on Had Abaddon. Similar to many of her contemporaries, Maladi wore all-black attire.

Darth Maladi was first mentioned in the preview for Star Wars: Legacy, Star Wars: Legacy (2006) 0, which was released on June 7, 2006.

Artist Jan Duursema redesigned Darth Maladi after determining that her initial illustration was too "sexy" and too similar to Darth Talon. The redesigned Darth Maladi was intended to appear more tightly wound, a design inspired by one of Dermot Power's original sketches, which later influenced the character Asajj Ventress. In an online interview on TheForce.Net, Duursema jokingly agreed that Maladi was supposed to be a bit "emo." Another point to note is Maladi's distinct skin color and fur quantity. The Essential Guide to Alien Species established that female Devaronians typically had abundant white fur, while Maladi has red skin and no fur. Duursema addressed this continuity issue by stating that she wanted Maladi to look different to avoid all Devaronians appearing the same.

The 2009 Legacy Era Campaign Guide stated that Maladi was born and raised on the Sith homeworld of Korriban and considered herself a "true" Sith Lord. She was proud of her heritage and engaged in elitism. In Legacy (2006) 45, cover dated to 2010, she was instead born on Devaron and was aware of the stigma associated with members of the One Sith who were not born on Korriban.