Sarasu Taalon

Sarasu Taalon, a male Keshiri, originated from the isolated planet Kesh. Possessing Force-sensitive abilities, Taalon became a member of the Lost Tribe of Sith on Kesh. This group consisted of descendants of a Sith faction that had been marooned on the planet for millennia. By the time frame following the Second Galactic Civil War, Taalon had risen to the rank of High Lord, securing him a position on the Tribe's governing Circle of Lords. In 41 ABY, the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship arrived on Kesh, informing the Sith about the current state of the galaxy's affairs—the Sith had suffered defeat, and the Jedi were experiencing growth in both numbers and power. Shortly thereafter, Ship became aware of an s18 light freighter en route from the planet Eriadu and instructed five Sith to accompany it in attacking the freighter. Taalon was selected, together with Lady Olaris Rhea, Rhea's apprentice Vestara Khai, and the Sith Ivaar Workan and Ruku Myal. Ship transported the Sith away from the planet and launched an assault on the freighter, forcing it to land. The Sith then commenced a search for the surviving crew, dividing into two groups—Taalon and Rhea in one, and Khai, Workan, and Myal in the other. Khai, Myal, and Workan swiftly eliminated two of the crew members, whereas Taalon and Rhea cornered the remaining four. The Sith successfully completed their mission, and Taalon summoned them back to the freighter to conduct an inventory.

Ship continued to bring members of the Tribe offworld, allowing them to leave Kesh for the first time in thousands of years and aiding them in establishing a new armada from the vessels they had captured. After a period of two years, the Tribe's armada had expanded to include more than two dozen ships. However, the Meditation Sphere abandoned the Tribe soon after, prompting the Sith to dispatch a strike team, under the command of Rhea, to recover Ship and kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker.

Eventually, the Tribe on Kesh received a hypercomm message from Vestara Khai, informing them that the strike team had been defeated during the ambush of Skywalker. She also informed them of Abeloth—a dark side entity who had managed to deceive the strike team and hold them captive for a period on her planet in the Maw, and who was also inducing a psychosis among various Force-sensitives throughout the galaxy. Taalon was then placed in command of a fleet of eleven ChaseMaster frigates, including his flagship, the Black Wave, and sent to retrieve Khai and confront Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben. The Sith planned to feign an alliance with the Jedi under the guise of wanting to eliminate Abeloth, while their true intention was to force Abeloth to serve the Tribe and then eliminate the Skywalkers.

Upon arriving in orbit around Dathomir, where Khai had sought refuge among the Raining Leaves Clan of Dathomiri Witches, a convoy led by Lord Viun Gaalan landed to retrieve Khai and capture a group of dark side-wielding Nightsisters. The Nightsisters were transported to Taalon's fleet in orbit, but Gaalan was attacked by the Skywalkers and compelled to flee without Khai. Khai was captured by the Jedi and taken aboard their ship, the Jade Shadow. However, as the Jedi departed Dathomir, they were confronted by Taalon and his fleet of ChaseMasters. Taalon instructed the Jedi to enter a parking orbit, and, recognizing their overwhelming disadvantage, the Skywalkers complied.

To the Jedi's surprise, Taalon proposed that they form an alliance for a mission to destroy Abeloth, falsely claiming that she was using her powers to influence the Tribe's apprentices in the same way she was influencing the Jedi Order's Jedi Knights. Initially, the Jedi were skeptical, but they agreed to the proposal on the condition that Khai remained aboard the Jade Shadow. Luke Skywalker also suggested that they seek the assistance of his friend, Lando Calrissian, in navigating the Maw, and Taalon concurred. Subsequently, the allied forces made a stop at the planet Klatooine to await Calrissian's arrival with his asteroid tug, the Rockhound.

While on Klatooine, Taalon's second-in-command, Leeha Faal, learned about the Fountain of the Ancients, a sacred and beautiful fountain of wintrium situated in the Derelkoos Desert on Klatooine. Taalon was captivated by the fountain and became consumed with a desire for it. The Jedi discovered that the Sith were plotting to betray them—learning that Taalon's claims about the Tribe's apprentices were false—and Skywalker suggested that they relocate the fleet to await Calrissian just outside the Maw. Taalon agreed and persuaded the Jedi to allow him to leave two frigates behind on Klatooine in case any issues arose. Taalon then promoted Faal to Captain of the Winged Dagger, demoting its previous captain, Syndor, to her second-in-command, and instructed her to retrieve wintrium samples from the Fountain. She relayed her orders to Vyn Holpur, captain of the other ChaseMaster that remained on Klatooine, the Starstalker, and he carried out the raid after Taalon and the rest of the fleet departed the system.

The raid was successful, although the Sith were apprehended, and Holpur and his crew were sentenced to death. Faal and her crew evaded the same fate by asserting that Holpur had acted independently, and they returned to Taalon and the fleet outside the Maw alongside Calrissian and Jedi Knight Jaina Solo. Skywalker convinced Taalon to make a brief stop at Sinkhole Station—a space station in the Maw where the Skywalkers had encountered Abeloth, and where the Tribe's strike team had attacked the Jedi—but they discovered that the station had been completely destroyed. Subsequently, the allied forces traveled directly to Abeloth's planet.

Upon their arrival, Skywalker proposed that they walk beyond shadows—a realm of the Force that consisted of locations corresponding to real locations on Abeloth's world—in order to locate Abeloth. Despite Khai's warnings against it, Taalon agreed to the plan, bringing with him Faal and Khai's father, the Sith Saber Gavar Khai. Once beyond shadows, they arrived at the Lake of Apparitions; Luke Skywalker cautioned the Sith about the danger of straying from the path, but Faal was tragically dragged into the fatal Depths of Eternity to her death nonetheless, causing Taalon great distress. Soon afterward, after conversing with his deceased wife, Mara Jade, Skywalker determined that they needed to return to the real world immediately. Immediately upon exiting the realm, they discovered that Vestara Khai had allowed the Skywalkers' friend, Dyon Stadd—a Force-sensitive who had succumbed to Abeloth's influence—to escape from his restraints aboard the Jade Shadow, so that they could follow him to Abeloth.

Taalon selected twenty-one other Sith, including the Khais, to join the Skywalkers in the search for Abeloth. They located Stadd in a cave within a volcano where the strike team dispatched to recover Ship had first encountered Abeloth. He reported that Abeloth had attempted to consume his life energy but had fled upon sensing the presence of the Sith and Jedi. Luke Skywalker led the allies down a tunnel at the back of the cave, guiding them to a courtyard. Abeloth revealed herself and attempted to deceive Skywalker into believing that she was his long-lost lover, Callista Ming, but Skywalker deduced that she had merely consumed Ming, just as she had attempted to do with Stadd. While the two conversed, the Sith began weaving a control web—a Force power they had acquired from the captured Nightsisters—over the courtyard. Abeloth prepared to attack Skywalker when he refused to join her, and Taalon, the Skywalkers, and the Khais charged the entity.

Abeloth incapacitated Vestara Khai, and Ben Skywalker promptly left the action to attend to her. Taalon, Luke Skywalker, and Gavar Khai were all held at bay by Abeloth's Force lightning and telekinetic abilities. She then vanished, causing her assailants to inadvertently attack each other for a moment, before reappearing at the far end of the courtyard. Taalon, Khai, Skywalker, and one other Sith resumed the attack, gradually wearing her down. Khai suddenly feigned a strike at Abeloth before redirecting it at Skywalker, initiating the execution of the Sith betrayal as the rest of the Sith lowered the control web onto Abeloth. Skywalker deflected Khai's blow and turned to continue dueling Abeloth while his son returned to confront the Sith Saber. Taalon and the Sith persisted in their attempts to capture Abeloth, but despite their overwhelming numbers, Luke Skywalker gained the upper hand in the battle. Finally, Abeloth repulsed all of her assailants with a massive telekinetic blast and fled the courtyard. The Jedi and Sith quickly recovered and followed her back up the tunnel to the cave, where Skywalker attacked and seemingly killed her.

Taalon proposed that they examine Abeloth's body to gain further insights into her nature, and the Sith and Jedi tentatively restored their alliance to investigate Abeloth further. While exploring ancient ruins on the planet, Taalon and Luke Skywalker encountered the Font of Power, and the High Lord heard voices emanating from the Font. Taalon also recognized the symbols on the ruins as those associated with the Destructors, a race in Keshiri mythology who were said to eradicate galactic civilization every few eons. Soon afterward, the allies witnessed Abeloth's lifeless body transform into that of Dyon Stadd, and they realized that she had somehow switched bodies with him before Luke had killed her. Following a three-hour standoff, the Jedi convinced the Sith to accompany them back to their ships, where they had left Abeloth, whom they had believed to be Stadd. However, they discovered that she had fled.

As they began to search the planet for Abeloth, Ship reappeared, and the Sith falsely informed the Jedi that they had summoned the Meditation Sphere back—in reality, the vessel was under Abeloth's control. Ship convinced the Sith that they needed to visit the Pool of Knowledge in order to locate Abeloth, and agreed to transport them there. It dropped the allies off near the Pool, and they divided into two groups—Taalon, Gavar, and Luke in one, Vestara and Ben in the other—to find it. Vestara and Ben discovered the Pool first, and the apprentice summoned her fellow Sith to her through the Force. At the Pool of Knowledge, Ben gazed in and saw Abeloth fleeing toward their vessels, realizing that Ship's maneuver had been a ruse to remove them from the path so that she could escape. However, the image soon after changed to depict Kesh, leading Gavar to believe that the Jedi were attempting to learn the location of their homeworld. Luke used the Force to throw Gavar back, preventing him from attacking Ben, but Taalon remained oblivious to the events unfolding around him—within the Pool, he saw the Throne of Balance, upon which sat a Jedi queen. Fearing that this was an omen that this queen could thwart the Tribe's takeover of the galaxy, Taalon demanded to know her identity. The Jedi did not respond and instead chose that moment to attack, but Taalon dove into the Pool before they could intervene.

As he emerged from the Pool, he was struck by Vestara, who had been sent flying backward by Ben. He punched her in fury, and Luke promptly engaged the High Lord in combat. However, the Grand Master soon used the Force to send Gavar tumbling into Taalon and Vestara, and severed the Sith Saber's forearm. Luke was knocked away by Force lightning, but the Jedi fled the grotto, collapsing the entrance behind them. Taalon was certain that the Jedi possessed crucial information about the queen he had seen on the Throne in the Pool, and he devised a plan for Vestara to acquire more information about her. He assaulted Vestara and then dispatched her to find the Jedi, hoping to create the impression that she was escaping his punishment. He and Gavar pursued her back to the beach where they had left their ships, and upon their arrival, Taalon blasted her with Force lightning. Luke suddenly opened fire on the two Sith; both dodged for cover, but two bolts grazed Taalon. He and Gavar then returned fire, and Luke retreated down the bank to find Vestara. As Taalon and Gavar advanced, however, they came within proximity of a thermal detonator planted by Luke, and the resulting explosion stalled them, allowing the Jedi to escape with Vestara in Taalon's personal shuttle, the Emiax.

Following his immersion in the Pool, Taalon began to undergo a physical transformation, gradually becoming more and more like Abeloth. He lost all appetite for the foodstuffs typically enjoyed by the beings of the galaxy, leading to his weakening due to starvation. Accompanied by Gavar, he departed the world in Ship and rendezvoused with other members of the Sith armada—which had continued to expand and was now poised to commence an invasion of the galaxy. Soon, a message from Vestara arrived via a relay post on Boonta; she reported that the Jedi had tracked Abeloth to Pydyr, a moon of Almania, and that she suspected they had already called for reinforcements. The Tribe decided to dispatch Taalon, Gavar, and several other Sith to Pydyr aboard the Kondo-class assault shuttle Obuuri. Upon their arrival, they discovered that the moon was plagued by a disease, forcing them to wear hazard suits. Taalon, meanwhile, was conflicted—he yearned to learn from Abeloth the nature of his transformation, but he required the Jedi's assistance in finding her. Thus, when Gavar and Luke resolved to initiate a conflict upon meeting on Pydyr, he instructed the Sith Saber to stand down and vowed to the Jedi that he would assist in killing Abeloth.

Taalon, Gavar, and fifty more Sith joined Luke, Ben, and Vestara aboard the Jade Shadow as they traveled to the Fallanassi village on Pydyr, with more Sith in the Obuuri following them. Luke informed the Sith that wearing hazard suits would not protect them from the plague—which was, in reality, an illusion created by Abeloth via the White Current, the Fallanassi's perspective of the Force—reporting that Ben and Vestara had worn hazard suits, and they still exhibited signs of the disease; although he falsely claimed that the Jedi possessed a technique to resist it. Gavar was enraged that Luke had not protected his daughter and began to threaten him, but Taalon interrupted him, insisting that Luke was merely attempting to infect them by persuading them to remove their suits. Suddenly, Ship appeared on the Jade Shadow's tactical display, but Fallanassi illusions made it appear to be a full fleet of Sith meditation spheres. Taalon continued to assert that the spheres were under Sith control, but as they approached, the Obuuri opened fire on them. Skywalker, however, the only being present who could access the White Current and see through the illusions, piloted the Jade Shadow directly into the fleet.

Soon afterward, the Obuuri crashed into a cliff concealed by the White Current and was destroyed. Taalon began to demand that they land and await reinforcements, but Luke suddenly dove down to the island, and the illusion concealing it was shattered. Upon landing at the village, they were greeted by several Fallanassi, who reluctantly agreed to help heal the Sith from the plague. However, Taalon finally realized that the plague was merely an illusion, although the rest of the Sith remained unconvinced. Taalon demanded to know Abeloth's location, and he began to interrogate the Fallanassi Akanah Norand Goss Pell as three more shuttles of Sith arrived on the island as reinforcements. When Pell was not as forthcoming as Taalon wished her to be, he signaled for Gavar to hold another Fallanassi hostage. Pell answered his next question—that Abeloth was residing among the Fallanassi because she was a Fallanassi—but when Luke asked whether that meant she had always been one, or if she had recently joined, Pell declined to reply. Taalon then signaled Gavar, and the Sith Saber killed his hostage. Pell grew enraged, stating that he could not intimidate her, and drove Gavar to madness with visions in the White Current, until Vestara finally knocked him unconscious.

Pell—who was actually Abeloth in Pell's body—released the visions onto all of the Sith, except for Taalon and Vestara. She then invited Taalon into a gathering hall to converse with him, but the Skywalkers and Vestara followed. Luke attempted to convince the Sith High Lord that Abeloth was attempting to manipulate the Jedi and Sith against each other, but he was too consumed with the desire to learn about his transformation. Taalon initiated the battle before Luke could move into the optimal position from which to attack. Luke managed to defeat Abeloth, killing Pell's body, before turning to battle Taalon and Vestara, but Abeloth suddenly reappeared in the form of Callista Ming. She overpowered Luke but prevented Taalon from killing the Jedi Grand Master, expressing her desire that he suffer as much as she and Taalon did; and the High Lord agreed. She knocked Luke unconscious, and Taalon trapped Ben in a Force net, and they also brought Gavar into the hall, though he remained unconscious. While conversing with Taalon, Abeloth revealed that the reason he could not eat was that mortal food could not satisfy the kind of being he had become. She then began feeding him dark energy from her tentacles.

Luke, however, finally regained consciousness and created a distraction by causing the ceiling to collapse. In the ensuing chaos, Vestara, whom Taalon had abused for being a mere apprentice long ago, jumped forward and killed the High Lord; she did not want to allow him to become another Abeloth, as she recognized the threat that Abeloth posed to the galaxy. The Force net around Ben disintegrated, and the Jedi fought off Abeloth, forcing her to retreat. When Vestara tried to take the Jedi captive, Luke awoke Gavar as he praised the apprentice for killing Taalon. Gavar, believing her daughter to have betrayed the Sith, began to attack but was knocked out by Vestara. Vestara was then forced to flee with the Skywalkers, as the rest of the Sith on the planet—who had finally recovered from their visions—presumed that she had betrayed the Tribe and killed Taalon.

Sarasu Taalon was a lavender-skinned Keshiri male who spoke with a beautiful and melodious voice. He valued power and was not afraid to let those who did not live up to his standards die. He had a predilection for things of beauty, particularly glass. He was intrigued by wintrium, his interest piquing when he learned that the substance had properties very similar to glass. He expressed fascination and wonder upon the sight of the Fountain of the Ancients, Klatooine's largest concentration of wintrium.

Sarasu Taalon was first introduced at the end of Aaron Allston's Fate of the Jedi: Backlash, the fourth novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. He was then featured prominently in the fifth and sixth novels, Fate of the Jedi: Allies, by Christie Golden, and Fate of the Jedi: Vortex, by Troy Denning, respectively.

Taalon is the sixth Legacy era Sith Lord of the Lost Tribe to be named. He is also the second Keshiri Sith Lord to be identified thus far, as well as the second High Lord to be named, the first being Takaris Yur.