Darth Tenebrous

Biography

Apprenticeship

After being chosen by a Twi'lek Sith Lord to be their apprentice, Rugess Nome transitioned into the identity of Darth Tenebrous. Together, he and his master dedicated their efforts to the Grand Plan. During his Sith training, Darth Tenebrous forged a red lightsaber, which he then employed in sparring sessions and to refine his lightsaber combat skills. One particular scheme hatched by Tenebrous and his Master involved creating a specialized virus intended to sever the Jedi's connection to the Force; however, despite years of development, this project ultimately failed.

Eventually, Tenebrous shifted his perspective, viewing the dark side of the Force not as a sentient, malicious entity seeking to inflict suffering across the galaxy, but rather as a form of energy that, like any other, could be manipulated. Once Nome deemed his master to be obsolete, he eliminated them.

Seeking out an apprentice

Rugess Nome gained widespread recognition throughout the galaxy for his legendary starship designs, all while concealing his true identity as a Sith Lord.

While searching for a suitable Sith apprentice, Tenebrous orchestrated a meeting between Caar Damask, a mid-level agent within the InterGalactic Bank, and his future wife, knowing that their child would possess a strong connection to the Force. When their son, Hego Damask, reached the age of five, Nome journeyed to Mygeeto and successfully convinced his parents to relinquish him. Tenebrous then took the child as his apprentice, renaming him Darth Plagueis.

Living in the profane world

In line with the practices of many Sith Lords before him, Tenebrous diligently expanded the network of informants and agents that had been initiated by Darth Bane. These agents served as the Sith's eyes and ears throughout the galaxy, providing them not only with information but also with access to the highest echelons of galactic political power. To this end, he adopted the public persona of Rugess Nome, a starship designer whose creations were exclusively available to the elite members of the galaxy's rising powers. These influential figures often included politicians, entrepreneurs, bankers, industrialists, and any other individual with sufficient power to potentially aid the Sith's schemes. Tenebrous's apprentice, Darth Plagueis, assisted his Master in these endeavors under the guise of Hego Damask, a wealthy financier who eventually established his own financial lobbying firm, Damask Holdings. As the heir to the former head of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Plagueis also inherited the remote moon of Sojourn, and the Gatherings that were frequently held there under his father's management. Originally intended as a retreat for the wealthy, Caar Damask had utilized these Gatherings as a platform for bringing together influential individuals and facilitating secret agendas for both business and political gains. Under Plagueis's leadership, Tenebrous exploited the Gatherings to extend his own influence over the Republic and the wider galaxy.

Among those drawn into Tenebrous's web were the leaders of the burgeoning Trade Federation, which was steadily gaining significant influence over the outer systems and even within the Galactic Senate. The Federation would eventually become one of Damask Holdings's most important clients. Tenebrous's schemes also involved the Gran Protectorate, the governing representatives of the resource-rich planet Malastare. Tenebrous and Plagueis considered the Protectorate's Senator, Pax Teem, as a potential candidate for manipulation into the position of Supreme Chancellor.

Tenebrous also sought to incorporate other influential figures into his circle, including a wealthy industrialist named Kerred Santhe. In an attempt to secure Santhe's allegiance, Tenebrous offered him exclusive rights to a Rugess Nome starship. However, Santhe outmaneuvered Tenebrous, and agents of Santhe Security successfully stole the blueprints, effectively cutting Nome out of the deal entirely. Santhe leveraged the success of the manufactured starship to expand his holdings, acquiring a controlling stake in Sienar Technologies. Narro Sienar, the company's chief designer, managed to retain his position only by marrying his daughter to Santhe.

Seeing an opportunity for revenge and to gain the favor of Narro Sienar, Tenebrous dispatched Plagueis to assassinate Kerred Santhe, marking his apprentice's first mission as an assassin.

Demise

In 67 BBY, Tenebrous and Plagueis journeyed to the planet Bal'demnic to investigate a deposit of cortosis ore. However, their M-2 mining probe droid had been sabotaged by Subtext Mining, triggering a pocket of lethane gas and causing a massive explosion. Although Tenebrous managed to contain the blast, Plagueis seized the opportunity to kill his Master, collapsing the cavern ceiling onto Tenebrous. As he lay dying, Tenebrous congratulated his apprentice on his success in surpassing him. However, the rockfall had also destroyed the starship they had arrived in, effectively stranding Plagueis in a location where he required an enviro-suit for survival. Upon realizing that his apprentice's desire to kill him had severely jeopardized the Sith's continuity, Tenebrous expressed disappointment in his pupil, prompting Plagueis to angrily break the Bith's neck. As the unconscious Nome slowly died, Plagueis used the Force to examine microscopic changes in Tenebrous' body, observing the gradual demise of his neurons and midi-chlorians.

However, this was not the end for Tenebrous, who ensured the survival of his own consciousness into altered midi-chlorians—which he labeled maxi-chlorians. Those maxi-chlorians would then migrate not into the Force, but into Plagueis himself, the "diseased one." Not possessing a Bith's precision, Plagueis would never suspect Tenebrous' consciousness was inside his body, infecting cells with maxi-chlorians that would cut off the host of its Force-sensitivity. In order to fulfill his goals, Tenebrous sacrificed his ability to sense the motion of the future, something he no longer required since he already knew his future. Tenebrous' ultimate plan was to eventually possess the prophesied "Chosen One" using the power of essence transfer when they were still young and unable to resist, giving Tenebrous access to a body with a historic amount of midi-chlorians.

As his physical form perished, Darth Tenebrous infiltrated his apprentice's body, embedding himself within his cells. As the retrovirus propagated, the Bith gained access to Plagueis' powers of foresight. At that moment, he discovered and felt Plagueis' own death at the hands of his apprentice, which was only visible as a smear of darkness. That vision horrified him; Plagueis would die too soon, and Tenebrous would not fulfill his ultimate goal—seizing and becoming the Chosen One when he would appear.

Seeking an answer to understand Plagueis' complacent behavior, Tenebrous threw again his mind at the future, but could see nothing, as the retrovirus infected Plagueis' every cell; his apprentice was now robbed of his foresight power. Wholly giving himself to panic, Nome escaped Plagueis' body to think about a way out, only to discover his mummified remains. Time had passed, possibly decades or centuries, but the Sith Lord was unaware of it. He then wondered if his foresight, instead of being eliminated, had been twisted in upon itself, forcing him to endlessly relive his death, thus acquiring the coveted immortality, but not as he wanted. At that moment of realization, the Dark Lord wished he still had a mouth with which to scream.

Legacy

Following Plagueis's murder of his master, he acquired Darth Tenebrous's lightsaber and initiated investigations into those responsible for sabotaging the probe that led to his Master's demise. Although he ultimately failed to identify the perpetrator, his interrogation of a group of representatives from Subtext Mining on Sojourn led him to Naboo after one of their members attempted to atone by informing him of a vast plasma source on the planet. There, Plagueis would discover a young Human named Palpatine, his future apprentice Darth Sidious, and experience the same dark vision that had terrified Tenebrous in his final moments. True to his vision, Palpatine would ultimately murder Plagueis and bring the Grand Plan to fruition as Emperor of the Galactic Empire.

Personality and traits

Darth Tenebrous approached the Force with a rational mindset, viewing it as nothing more than a powerful instrument. Tenebrous was obsessed with understanding and manipulating the future, a trait that his apprentice, Darth Plagueis, attributed to his Bith intellect, which was rooted in mathematics and computation. He even believed that the Sith Grand Plan could be realized by combining the powers of the dark side with advanced Bith science. Tenebrous theorized that with the aid of sophisticated computers and predictive formulas, the galaxy's inhabitants could be provided for, and the Jedi Order would gradually diminish and disappear. Tenebrous held a fatalistic view regarding the Grand Plan's success, believing that the dark side's ascendance was predictable but beyond the Sith's ability to influence or accelerate. Plagueis, however, disagreed, considering visions of the future to be inherently unreliable and believing that the Jedi Order needed to be actively overthrown and destroyed rather than left to fade away. This difference in opinion ultimately prompted Tenebrous to train Darth Venamis as a replacement for Plagueis.

Despite his rational approach to the Force, Tenebrous adorned his body with tattoos and markings representing esoteric concepts, a discovery Plagueis made shortly before his master's death.

Powers and abilities

Darth Tenebrous possessed immense power in the Force and was a skilled lightsaber duelist, a quality he passed on to his secret apprentice, Darth Venamis. Tenebrous also demonstrated proficiency in Force speed, using it in an attempt to escape the cortosis mine, and he employed the Force to shield himself and Plagueis from a bomb's explosion. He could also levitate heavy rocks with the Force, an impressive display of telekinesis, and could generate the rare form of red Force lightning. Furthermore, Tenebrous possessed powerful precognitive abilities, enabling him to foresee his own demise, a feat that even Darth Sidious and Darth Caedus were unable to achieve.

In addition, Tenebrous designed his own starship and invented his own retrovirus that could turn his midi-chlorians into maxi-chlorians, as he had great knowledge of the former, knowing which counted belayed great power.

The Sith Lord did not possess the "innate gift" of Sith sorcery, but felt Bith science was far more potent.

Behind the scenes

The name of Darth Tenebrous first appeared in Star Wars canon in a 2006 blog post authored by Leland Chee, the custodian of the Holocron continuity database. Chee suggested that the name "Tenebrous" might have been derived from the word "tenebrous," which denotes darkness, gloominess, or obscurity. In 2008, author James Luceno expressed that, if given the opportunity, he would choose "Darth Tenebrous" as the name of the first Sith to ever bear the Darth title. Tenebrous made his debut in Luceno's 2012 novel, Darth Plagueis, as the Master of Darth Plagueis. His birth name, Rugess Nome, was also revealed.

When deciding Tenebrous's species, Luceno sought an existing intelligent and "brainy" species within Star Wars canon. The Bith species seemed to fit the criteria, but Luceno initially associated Bith with innocuous jizz-playing bands rather than formidable Sith Lords. However, acknowledging that diverse personality types could exist within a single species, he ultimately decided to proceed with the choice.