The Battlelords, also called Sith battlelords, represented a class of warrior serving Darth Rivan, a Sith Lord, during the era of the New Sith Wars. These Sith battlelords held leadership roles in Rivan's armies. Through intricate rituals involving the application of Sith magic, they were linked to the troops they commanded via the Force. This practice of utilizing Sith battlelords led to a decrease in desertions within the Sith's ranks and, for a certain time, appeared as though it might shift the balance of the New Sith Wars in favor of the Sith. However, a Force storm created by the Darkstaff destroyed Rivan's battlelord forces, leading to the Sith abandoning the creation of battlelords.
As time passed, the exact methods for creating Sith battlelords were forgotten. During the Clone Wars, both the slaver Phylus Mon and the Dark Jedi Karae Nalvas sought to rediscover the knowledge required to create battlelords. They journeyed to Rivan's fortress located on the planet Almas, where they uncovered a hidden chamber containing a tome detailing the steps involved in the battlelord rituals. Despite this discovery, their attempts to replicate the rituals proved unsuccessful.
Within the armies of Darth Rivan, a Sith Lord, during the New Sith Wars, existed a class of warriors known as Sith battlelords. The New Sith Wars, a conflict lasting a millennium, began in 2000 BBY and pitted the Galactic Republic against the resurgent Sith. Chosen from within Rivan's military, these battlelords commanded Sith regiments deployed against members of the Jedi Order.
Potential Sith battlelords underwent a series of intricate rituals that bound them to their troops through the Force. These rituals, conducted at locations saturated with the dark side of the Force, typically took place within an altar room inside a temple. Drawing upon the dark side and utilizing Sith magic, the rituals inflicted immense pain upon the candidate, pushing them to the brink of death. Some individuals did not survive the ordeal. The Jedi publication Speculations on Tactics of the Sith mentioned claims that aspiring battlelords were drained of all their blood, though it also noted a lack of consensus on the precise methods used to induce a near-death state.
To finalize the transformation into a Sith battlelord, some form of interaction was required between the unconscious leader and their followers. Typically, the followers would parade past the leader's lifeless body for approximately an hour, walking through the leader's blood. The leader's condition then had to stabilize without any application of the Force or medical assistance. If the leader survived, they were restored to full health. Upon completion of this process, a Force bond was established between the subordinates and their leader, signifying the successful transformation into a Sith battlelord.
Darth Rivan, a Zelosian Dark Lord who governed the Sith during the New Sith Wars from a fortress on the planet Almas, pioneered the creation of Sith battlelords. This development was a direct response to the high rates of desertion within the Sith armies. These desertions had weakened the coordination of Sith military forces, thereby jeopardizing their war efforts. Rivan ultimately refined the process of creating Sith battlelords. He documented the specifics of the battlelord ritual within a secret chamber in his fortress on Almas. Furthermore, inscriptions on the walls of various Sith temples detailed the nature of the bond between the warrior leaders and their subordinates.
The Sith were initially surprised by the impact of the Sith battlelords on the battlefield. The bonded leaders brought a level of cohesion to the Sith armies that surpassed expectations. When a Sith warrior bonded to the Sith battlelord Farh j'Hien deserted and was captured by Jedi Master Kei Loo Bross, the Jedi observed the warrior's pain resulting from his separation from j'Hien due to their Force bond. In a transcript, Bross noted the effectiveness of battlelords as a tool for the Sith. For a period, their use threatened to shift the tide of the New Sith Wars in favor of the Sith. However, his apprentice betrayed Rivan before he could amass a full army of bonded leaders. When Rivan obtained the Darkstaff, an ancient Sith artifact that consumed the Force essences of individuals, it unleashed a Force storm that annihilated his entire battlelord force and transported him into the future.
Recognizing that killing a battlelord freed the bonded warriors, causing them to often flee, the Jedi began to specifically target Sith battlelords. Consequently, Sith battlelords no longer served their intended purpose, leading the Sith to abandon their use. Over time, the exact methods for creating these warrior leaders were lost, leaving only vague references in historical records. A section dedicated to Sith battlelords was eventually included in the Jedi publication Speculations on Tactics of the Sith.
More than a millennium later, during the Clone Wars, Len Markus, a Human, provided the Darkstaff to Phylus Mon, a Chevin slaver, so that Mon could repair the artifact. The Darkstaff had become damaged when Markus seized it from the Cularin asteroid belt. Mon journeyed to the Cularin system, where Almas was located, to recover knowledge on creating Sith battlelords from Rivan's fortress. Mon believed that performing the battlelord rituals would repair the Darkstaff, because the artifact desired the Force essences of sentient beings, and the creation rituals manipulated these essences. Mon also hoped to use these techniques to bind armies of slaves to himself or others.
Mon formed an alliance with Karae Nalvas, a Dark Jedi, who also sought the secrets of Sith battlelord creation. However, Mon secretly planned to murder Nalvas after the Dark Jedi became a bonded leader, to observe the consequences of killing such a being. Mon and Nalvas entered the Almas Sith fortress and accessed the battlelord chamber, where they discovered a tome detailing the battlelord rituals. Using this knowledge, they attempted to carry out the rituals, intending to bind the slaves Gorak, Kaarror, Nalz, and Yerj, as well as the captured Jedi Constanten and Valiri, to Mon. However, the ceremony failed due to the presence of the Darkstaff, resulting in the Force essences of Nalvas, the slaves, and the two Jedi being ripped from their bodies.
Sometime after this event, a slicer posted a log on the subject of Sith battlelords on a HoloNet node of the planet Cularin. The log detailed the creation of battlelords and speculated that Rivan may have specifically built the Almas Sith fortress as a facility for testing and refining their creation. Len Markus regained possession of the Darkstaff following Mon's repair attempt. By 19 BBY, the Darkstaff had imbued Markus with some of the powers of a Sith battlelord, creating a Force bond between Markus and his Gamorrean bodyguard Kluuus.
Sith battlelords were formidable figures who strived to enhance their personal power by seeking favor with their Sith superiors, even at the cost of their lives. Their maniacal bloodlust drove them to push their troops to their limits. The bonding rituals thickened the skin of battlelords, enhancing their defensive capabilities. Most of these warrior leaders were males.
The battlelord rituals established a near-physical connection between the warrior leaders and their troops. The strength of the ritual determined the range within which bonded soldiers could operate, typically between five and fifteen kilometers from their battlelord. They were compelled to obey their battlelord's commands or risk being left behind. Troops straying too far from their Sith battlelord would experience intense abdominal pain and throbbing headaches for twelve hours, eventually leading to death unless they returned to close proximity. Unless specific magics were undone, separating any member from the regiment caused intense physical pain for all other members and triggered visions of destruction for the warrior leader. Consequently, bonded Sith armies dealt harshly with deserters, who were then presented to the battlelords for punishment.
Soldiers attempting to assault their linked Sith battlelord would be afflicted with pain and eventually die. Furthermore, if warriors managed to draw their battlelord's blood, the battlelord would remain unaffected, while one of the bonded troopers would be harmed instead. Additionally, if a Sith battlelord was attacked by an opponent to which it was not bonded, the battlelord could sometimes transfer any physical wounds to bonded soldiers within thirty meters. A battlelord could also amplify its attacks by drawing power from bonded soldiers within a thirty-meter radius, causing the bonded soldiers to become dazed. The death of a Sith battlelord would release the warriors bonded to the lord. The bond between a battlelord and its followers could also be severed by the light side power Force Light.
Morrie Mullins created the Sith battlelords, who were first mentioned in A Mon Alone, a role-playing adventure that formed part of the Living Force campaign. They later appeared in the Wizards.com article Sith Battlelords, also written by Mullins. They were also mentioned in the role-playing scenarios The Eye, written by Mullins and Jae Walker, and Echoes of the Jedi, an adventure in the Dawn of Defiance role-playing campaign, written by Jean-François Boivin and Abel G. Peña.
A Mon Alone, Sith Battlelords, and Echoes of the Jedi offer differing explanations for why the Sith discontinued the use of Sith battlelords. A Mon Alone states that the Jedi began specifically targeting battlelords in battle, while Sith Battlelords claims that Rivan was betrayed by his apprentice before he could create an army of battlelords. Echoes of the Jedi claims that Rivan's battlelord army was destroyed by a Force storm. This article attempts to reconcile these three explanations. There is also disagreement among the sources regarding the capitalization of the Sith battlelords' name. A Mon Alone refers to them as "Sith Battlelords," while the Sith Battlelords article and The Eye refer to them as "Sith battlelords," and Echoes of the Jedi simply calls them "Battlelords." This article adopts the capitalization from Sith Battlelords and The Eye, as they were published after A Mon Alone.