Garth Ezzar

Garth Ezzar, a Force-sensitive Human male, existed towards the end of the Galactic Republic period, having been brought up on a colonized world within the Rim Worlds. Although his connection to the Force began to show itself early in his life, those around him did not recognize Ezzar's latent abilities. While his Force abilities initially garnered him admiration from other children, he ultimately faced bullying and isolation due to his unique talents. As a teenager, Ezzar sought vengeance on those who had tormented him in his youth, leading to his incarceration after he inflicted serious injury on someone and committed arson. He subsequently escaped and lived as a pariah for a number of years, becoming what some within the Jedi Order termed a dark side marauder.

Ezzar's life took a turn when he encountered a woman from another world, five years his senior and proficient in the dark side of the Force. She took Ezzar as her apprentice, teaching him how to harness the dark side, and found him to be a gifted student. Together, they engaged in a series of criminal activities, using their powers to steal and destroy. When the woman learned that some Jedi had been dispatched to investigate reports of her and Ezzar's illegal actions, she plotted to murder her apprentice, then allow the Jedi to find his body, thereby ensuring that Ezzar would be held solely responsible for their crimes. Ezzar discovered her planned treachery and, consumed by rage, tapped into the dark side and killed her in anger. Surprised by the power he had displayed, Ezzar fled in his master's starship, leaving her body behind for the Jedi to find, thus allowing her to be blamed for all of their wrongdoings.

Over the next three years, Ezzar journeyed across the galaxy, committing crimes along the way. Eventually, he arrived on the planet Coruscant, the galactic capital, where he intended to join a criminal organization, possibly even creating one himself. Instead, Ezzar encountered Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord who offered to train him and unlock the young man's full Force potential, to the point where Ezzar's power would surpass that of any Jedi. Ezzar accepted the offer and trained under Sidious's guidance, becoming a Dark Jedi and learning how to use a lightsaber, the traditional weapon of the Jedi. The Sith Lord viewed Ezzar as merely a useful tool and a potential backup apprentice, rather than a true Sith apprentice, and he concealed his true identity from the Dark Jedi. Ezzar only knew his mentor as "The Master," unaware that the Sith Lord's real name was "Darth Sidious" and that Sidious was also publicly known as "Palpatine," the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

Ezzar established a base of operations in the Darkside area of the Coruscant Undercity, creating a network of spies there. He chose to keep his true identity secret from his underlings, presenting himself as a Jedi thug, which led the spies to refer to him as "the Jedi in black." Despite Ezzar's efforts to conceal his identity, some criminals in Darkside learned his name and came to believe that mentioning Ezzar's name aloud would result in death. Ezzar acquired a Star Courier to serve as his personal starship and began carrying out missions for Sidious, but his efforts were repeatedly thwarted by the Heroes of Cularin, a group of independent agents operating out of the Cularin system.

During the period of the Clone Wars, around 20 BBY, Sidious sent Ezzar on a mission to discredit the Jedi at the Almas Academy, a school located on the planet Almas within the Cularin system. Ezzar was tasked with initiating a plan to crash a comet into a Sith fortress situated on Almas, then framing the Jedi for the accident and allowing details of the operation to be discovered, in order to portray the Almas Jedi as dangerous and irresponsible. To begin the plan, Ezzar disguised himself as Jedi Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk, the Academy's head, and using the disguise and false credentials, he arranged a meeting with the Wookiees Mronk and Rroorgli. The pair owned and operated the Comet Broom Service, a company that monitored and destroyed rogue comets that strayed into the Cularin system's shipping lanes. During the meeting, Ezzar commissioned the Wookiees to carry out the Cometary Water Reclamation Project, an operation to place a comet into orbit around Almas, so that water could be brought to the planet and used to terraform a barren area surrounding the Sith fortress. He requested that the company carry out the job in secret, claiming that he intended the project to be a surprise gift from the Jedi to the people of the Cularin system, and he used a mind trick on the Wookiees to convince them that his demands were reasonable.

Mronk and Rroorgli began working on the Reclamation Project and selected a comet named the Big One, which was located within the Cularin comet cloud. Ezzar then made sure that the computer system in the Reclamation Project command center on the comet was programmed to resemble the computer system used at the Almas Academy to further his deception that the project was linked to the Jedi. He also ensured that the computer system would require Qel-Bertuk's personal security code before it could be shut down, even though the code was not programmed into the computer's memory. At some point, he also placed a pair of automatic laser cannons on the surface of the comet to defend it from attackers.

As the Reclamation Project neared completion, the Wookiees notified Ezzar of the project's status via a secure communications code. Disguised as Qel-Bertuk, Ezzar flew to Artom Station, the headquarters of the Comet Broom Service, and upon arrival, he persuaded the Wookiees to allow him to dock his ship with their personal chamber, claiming that he didn't want anyone on the station to see him and spoil the surprise for the people of Almas. Ezzar brought a slicer with him, and while the Dark Jedi influenced the minds of the Wookiees, the slicer hacked into Comet Broom's computer system. The slicer changed the target coordinates for the Big One, redirecting the comet to collide with the Sith fortress. He then linked the information about the Big One to a small comet fragment that was posing a hazard in one of the Cularin system's shipping lanes, and deleted all the data about both, in such a way that the deletion could be detected. The slicer also left a Trojan programme inside the system, allowing the original data to be restored with the press of a key.

When the slicer had finished his work, Ezzar sent him back to the ship and supervised the Wookiees as they prepared a secure data cylinder to be used to send off recently-gathered comet information to Cularin SpaceNav, an organization that maintained a real-time navigational data service to aid starships navigating the shipping lanes that passed through the Cularin comet cloud. Once again, Ezzar used a mind trick to make his actions seem reasonable to the Wookiees, and after the cylinder had been sealed and encrypted, he activated the Trojan program, causing the Comet Broom Service's data to no longer match the data that they had sent to Cularin SpaceNav, which contained no record of the small comet fragment. Ezzar then left the station, confident that his interference would result in a starship crashing into the comet fragment, which would then trigger an investigation that he hoped would ultimately conclude that Qel-Bertuk and the Almas Jedi were obsessed with destroying the Sith fortress and posed a threat to the Cularin system. Ezzar planned to kill the slicer and dump his body in space if the scheme was successful, leaving no evidence that the Jedi had been set up. However, despite his confidence that the plot would work, Ezzar did not kill the slicer immediately, because he believed that the slicer's services would be useful to him in the future if the scheme failed.

Two weeks later, the YT-1300 light freighter Fricasseed Nerf crashed into the comet fragment while using data supplied by Cularin SpaceNav. After being hired by the ship's owner, Hedrett Shipping and Investments, to investigate why the data had been flawed, agents from the Heroes of Cularin traveled to Artom Station to speak with Mronk and Rroorgli. However, Ezzar had been monitoring the Wookiees' activities during the final stage of the project and learned of the meeting. When the agents had finished speaking to the Wookiees, Ezzar docked his ship with the Wookiees' office, planning to murder Mronk and Rroorgli and use their deaths as an opportunity to leave more data framing the Jedi for the plot. He killed the Wookiees with his lightsaber, then used a Force whirlwind to scatter objects across the room. He also destroyed the Wookiees' computer, though he took care to ensure that the computer's memory core remained intact, as it contained evidence that could incriminate the Jedi. To complete the deception, Ezzar tore a Comet Broom insignia from Rroorgli's clothing and placed in her hand a fake version of the insignia, which contained a secret compartment that housed a file about the Reclamation Project. Once he was finished, Ezzar returned to his ship and departed from the space station.

Despite all of his efforts, Ezzar's plot failed. The Heroes of Cularin deduced that Qel-Bertuk and the Jedi were not responsible for the Cometary Water Reclamation Project, and the agents stopped the Big One from crashing into Almas. At a subsequent conference on Almas to discuss Ezzar's scheme, the Cerean Cularin Militia representative Ul-Modo speculated that the Dark Jedi responsible had come from outside of the Cularin system, but had no clue as to Ezzar's identity.

At some point, Ezzar returned to Coruscant and visited Lucky You, an entertainment facility where amateur actors offered clients an hour of make-believe by allowing them to pretend that they lived successful lives in the upper levels of Coruscant. Ezzar came to the establishment dressed as an ordinary Darkside resident, claiming to be a Jedi named "Lanius," and he underwent a session of the facility's mock–upper class service. During the session, he laughed several times while the actors enacted his fantasy, in a manner that made the performers shudder. He also asked for several services that the facility did not provide, and Jeela Cthon, the co-owner of Lucky You, suggested a number of other establishments to him. Ezzar later returned and used the Lucky You service on another occasion.

By the time of the latter stages of the Clone Wars, Ezzar had become very powerful in the dark side of the Force. He became a Sith Warrior, and at some point, he killed two Jedi: a Jedi apprentice and a Jedi Knight. Reports of Ezzar's activities were received by the Coruscant Security Force, which recorded a number of sightings of an individual matching Ezzar's description eluding authorities and fleeing into the Coruscant Undercity. Rumors of a Force-using criminal who was operating in the Undercity also reached the Jedi Order, and in about 19 BBY, the Quermian Jedi Knight Jodoo Kreen was sent to investigate. Ezzar encountered and killed Kreen, his record of Jedi kills now totaling three. Despite Ezzar's power and demonstrated aptitude with the Force, Sidious planned to take the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as his new Sith apprentice and no longer had any need for Ezzar, so he plotted to have the Dark Jedi killed. To that end, Sidious planned to send Ezzar to destroy the Almas Academy, while ensuring that the Heroes of Cularin survived the destruction. Sidious hoped that the agents would then track down Ezzar and that they would either kill the Dark Jedi or be killed by him. If Ezzar survived the agents' attack, Sidious reasoned that he could wait until Skywalker had become his apprentice, then send his new student to dispose of Ezzar.

To allow the attack on Almas to take place, Sidious arranged for the cruiser Vigilance, which was defending the planet, to be sent away on a mission to raid an abandoned Separatist base located in a deserted system, with the Heroes of Cularin accompanying the attacking force. The base was rigged to seal the agents inside it for a period of time, and Sidious made an audio recording that was to be played when the agents were trapped inside the facility. While he was making the recording, Ezzar approached the Sith Lord and asked for permission to proceed with his attack on Almas. Sidious granted his blessing, then ended the recording.

Ezzar hired a pirate ship to assist him and departed in his Star Courier, heading for Almas to begin his attack. However, he was tailed by the Cerean Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, who sensed that Ezzar was strong in the dark side of the Force. Mundi planned to return to Coruscant and report his findings on the darksider to the Jedi Council, but after having a premonition of the impending attack on Almas, he instead set a course for the Cularin system. On his way, he was ambushed by Ezzar near the abandoned base. Ezzar engaged Mundi in a brief fight and fled when the Vigilance and the flotilla that it was leading arrived in the system and approached the base.

Upon his arrival within the Cularin system, Ezzar made his way towards Almas. The Cularin Armed Forces then commanded that he dock his spacecraft with a Thaereian customs ship stationed in orbit around the planet. He obeyed their orders, and then proceeded to murder the entire crew of the CAF vessel. Following this, he ordered two astromech droids and a pair of assassin droids that he had brought along to disembark from his Star Courier, so that they could become the new crew of the customs ship. When the Cularin Armed Forces attempted to contact the customs ship, Ezzar responded, falsely claiming that everything was fine. He also transmitted information that he had extracted from the minds of the original crew before their deaths, with the intent of deceiving the CAF into believing that nothing suspicious had occurred. Shortly thereafter, the pirate ship Ezzar had contracted arrived near Almas to assist in his planned assault. Once he was back on his own ship, the Star Courier, the customs ship, and the pirate ship descended into the atmosphere of Almas. The three ships then made their way towards the Almas Academy and began to bombard the facility, unleashing a barrage of turbolasers and concussion missiles that resulted in the destruction of the Academy's structures. Simultaneously, a group of approximately sixty pirates, mercenaries, criminals, and Believers—who were members of a Sith cult operating within the system—launched a ground assault on the Academy. Amidst the ensuing chaos, Ezzar piloted his ship to a landing in a nearby ravine and then rode his speeder bike to the Academy grounds. The surviving mercenaries joined him, and together they initiated a killing spree, with Ezzar personally eliminating any Padawan or Jedi Knight who dared to approach him. In order to provide the Padawans with an opportunity to escape, Jedi Master Devan For'deschel along with the remaining Jedi Knights and Academy staff confronted Ezzar and his forces. The Dark Jedi then engaged For'deschel in personal lightsaber combat. While For'deschel managed to wound Ezzar, the Dark Jedi quickly gained the upper hand and killed her. He then turned his attention to Zelice Sturm, the only other Jedi Master present at the Academy, and her Padawan, Meera Lisso.

Ezzar murdered Sturm, which caused Lisso to scream and attack him. He then used Force lightning to knock her to the ground. As he raised his lightsaber to deliver a fatal blow, he was interrupted by the arrival of the Heroes of Cularin, who had managed to escape from the abandoned base and reach Almas. Aware that his Master wanted the agents alive, Ezzar addressed them, instructing them to meet him in the Coruscant Undercity. He then departed on his speeder bike. Subsequently, Ezzar acquired the protocol droid E1-6RA from a band of pirates and mercenaries who had plundered the droid from the ruins of the Academy during the battle. Following this, he left Almas aboard his Star Courier.

After leaving Almas, Ezzar journeyed to Coruscant. Upon arriving, he concealed his Star Courier within the upper levels of a building located in Darkside's Industrial Sector. He then reactivated E1-6RA, hoping that the Heroes of Cularin would be able to track the emergency signal emitted by an emergency transmitter that was integrated into the droid, thereby enabling Ezzar to lure them into a confrontation. He also hired a group of thugs, promising them 5,000 credits for each of the Cularin system agents that they managed to capture. However, his true intention was to test the Heroes of Cularin, confident that they would easily defeat the thugs.

The Heroes of Cularin—accompanied by Lisso, who was assisting them in their search for Ezzar—traveled to Darkside and began their search for him within the district. Ezzar located them and executed a brief flyby attack on them from his speeder bike, before speeding away. Shortly after, Coruscant came under attack by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. As the battle raged across the planet, Ezzar encountered Lisso and the agents for a second time. The Dark Jedi mocked and belittled his opponents, claiming that their only chance of survival lay in joining him. He then launched an assault on the agents. During the battle, he taunted Lisso about Sturm's death, asserting that the Padawan was useless and lacked power. Despite his efforts, he was ultimately defeated and killed by the Heroes.

Garth Ezzar was a tall man, possessing a large and imposing physique. His voice was deep and resonant, and he had shoulder-length black hair and gray eyes. While he possessed a degree of natural attractiveness, his prolonged exposure to the dark side of the Force had marred his physical appearance, giving his eyes a haunted and predatory look. He was exceptionally cruel, convinced of his own superiority, and took pleasure in mocking and killing others. He harbored a deep-seated hatred for everyone around him, with a particular aversion to the Jedi. Furthermore, he had no qualms about sacrificing his own followers, viewing them as mere tools to serve his ambitions. Under the guidance of Darth Sidious, Ezzar developed a megalomaniacal mindset and became convinced of his own invincibility. He was trained to indulge his emotions and focus inwards, becoming selfish and self-aggrandizing. He even planned to betray and eliminate Sidious once he had acquired all of the Sith Lord's knowledge. He enjoyed collecting lightsabers as trophies.

Garth Ezzar possessed a significant connection to the Force. Despite his abilities, Darth Sidious deemed him too old to fully grasp all of the dark side philosophies possessed by the Sith Lord. Ezzar was skilled in manipulating the minds of others, and he was also capable of resisting such manipulations, even when attempted by a Jedi Master. He was proficient in using the Force to telekinetically move objects, create illusions, dissipate energy, and enhance his speed. Additionally, he was trained in the use of the powers battlemind, Force lightning, Force rage, and Force stealth. Ezzar was multi-lingual: in addition to Galactic Basic Standard, he was fluent in Huttese and the Sith. In combat, he utilized Form V lightsaber combat against his adversaries.

Ezzar piloted a modified Republic Sienar Systems Star Courier, which bore a striking resemblance to the Star Courier flown by the Sith Lord Darth Maul. He registered the starship under the name of Lanius Qel-Bertuk, a subtle and ironic joke. Within the Star Courier, Ezzar transported a custom-built speeder bike, which was similar to a speeder bike previously owned by Darth Maul.

Ezzar wore a black, armored, custom-designed body suit, which included its own independent air supply and could function as a space suit. The suit featured a metallic chest-piece, armored gauntlets, and a rounded helmet equipped with an internal comlink and a featureless faceplate with macrobinocular capabilities. Furthermore, the suit possessed limited self-repairing properties, which were activated upon sustaining slashes or punctures. He typically wore a black, hooded cape over his armored suit, considering it fashionable and using it to conceal the details of his body suit. On his back, Ezzar carried a set of rocket pack mounts, although he rarely used them because doing so would prevent him from wearing his cape. In combat, Ezzar wielded a customized BlasTech DY-225 Heavy Blaster Pistol and a double-bladed lightsaber with a red crystal, which he had personally constructed. He also carried a set of electrobinoculars, a glowrod, and several medpacs.

Garth Ezzar was initially mentioned, although without a name, in At Your Service, a 2003 Wizards of the Coast role-playing supplement authored by Ronald A. Heintz as part of the Living Force campaign. He later appeared in the 2005 role-playing scenario Destruction, the second installment of the Heart of Evil trilogy, which was the first source to identify him as "Garth Ezzar." The Dark Jedi subsequently appeared in A Hero Seeks Not Vengeance, the concluding chapter of the Heart of Evil trilogy. In 2008, he received an indirect mention in the role-playing supplement Echoes of the Jedi.

In At Your Service, Destruction, and A Hero Seeks Not Vengeance, the players assume the roles of the Heroes of Cularin, and their choices can influence the actions and ultimate fate of Garth Ezzar. At the conclusion of At Your Service, it is possible for the Heroes of Cularin to uncover Ezzar's plot to discredit the Almas Jedi. Destruction establishes that the agents successfully thwarted Ezzar's scheme in At Your Service, thereby making the failure of his plan the official outcome within Star Wars Legends continuity.

In Destruction, the player characters find themselves trapped within the abandoned Separatist base and can only encounter Ezzar on Almas if they manage to escape from the facility within a given time limit. If they fail to escape in time to meet Ezzar, he instructs Meera Lisso to inform the player characters that they can find him on Coruscant. If the player characters escape the base and arrive on Almas while Ezzar is still present, they may engage him in combat, although the scenario stipulates that Ezzar should not be killed on Almas. It suggests that if the player characters devise a plan to defeat Ezzar, the Force ghost of Lanius Qel-Bertuk will appear and attempt to persuade them to flee instead. Should the players engage Ezzar in combat, he will attempt to deflect any blaster bolts fired at him and prioritize incapacitating the player characters rather than killing them. During the fight, a group of six mercenaries may arrive to assist Ezzar. If the Dark Jedi or his minions incapacitate any of the player characters, Ezzar and his minions will immediately shift their fire, rather than attempt to finish off any injured individuals. If all of the player characters are incapacitated, Ezzar will either order his minions to stabilize them or treat the player characters himself before leaving Almas. If Ezzar has an opportunity to escape at any point, he will use Force speed to reach his speeder bike and return to his ship.

The player characters encounter Ezzar during the events of A Hero Seeks Not Vengeance and can meet him in various ways. If the agents travel to the Vice Central region of Darkside without intending to find Ezzar in the area, it is possible for Ezzar to spot them and then depart, using E1-1RA's signal or another sign of his presence to lure the agents to a different part of Darkside. Ezzar can also stage a brief flyby attack on the agents from his speeder bike, using the Force to either topple some columns onto them or to spill molten plastic onto them. The players will eventually have a final confrontation with Ezzar, which can occur in any of the four districts of Darkside: the Industrial Sector, the Recycling Sector, the Residential Sector, or the Services Sector. If the battle takes place in the Residential Sector, and if the agents have assisted any of the area's inhabitants earlier in the adventure, it is possible for those residents to aid the players from a distance by throwing projectiles at Ezzar or by dropping objects onto him. If, during their battle, the player characters attempt to trick Ezzar into entering disadvantageous situations, he will initially be fooled by their ploys but will become more cautious as the fight turns against him.

The player characters can kill or incapacitate Ezzar during the adventure, but if he begins to lose the fight and is able to retreat, he will flee and be attacked by an unidentified dark side user, who uses a lightsaber to sever Ezzar's hands and then stab him in the chest, killing the Dark Jedi. Similarly, if Ezzar succeeds in defeating the players, he will be attacked by the darksider and killed in the same manner. If the players find Ezzar too powerful to defeat, they can retreat to the Jedi Temple, the Coruscant headquarters of the Jedi Order, and report to the Jedi everything that they know about Ezzar. If they then return to Darkside with some of the Temple Jedi, Ezzar will leave the area before they arrive and meet an off-stage death at the hands of the unidentified darksider. During their battle with Ezzar, the players can choose to surrender to him and will subsequently be disarmed and taken away. Meera Lisso will then attempt to fight against him on her own, and Ezzar will be killed by the unidentified darksider soon afterward. Alternately, the players can capture Ezzar, in which case he will be imprisoned in the Jedi Temple and killed during the events of the film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, which depicts an attack on the Temple by Sidious's apprentice, Darth Vader. As all of the possible conclusions of A Hero Seeks Not Vengeance result in Ezzar's demise, it is therefore canon that he dies on Coruscant in 19 BBY, although the exact nature of his death is dependent on the actions of the player characters.