The Sith Warrior, alternatively referred to as the Dark Apprentice, represented the embodiment of darkness manifested through the Force within Starkiller. Starkiller was a young Human male who received clandestine training in the dark side's ways from Darth Vader, a Sith Lord. Functioning as a Sith in all aspects except title, Starkiller dedicated years to perfecting his skills in lightsaber combat and mastering Force techniques as Vader's secret apprentice and personal assassin. More than just a depiction of Starkiller's "dark side," the Sith Warrior embodied the potential outcome for Starkiller: a Dark Lord of the Sith, confined within a suit of armor painfully fused to his body, poised to succeed Vader as the apprentice of Darth Sidious.
During Starkiller's third and final time infiltration of the Jedi Temple located on Coruscant, his quest for additional insights regarding his dead father ultimately resulted in his successful completion of the Jedi Trials. While in an unconscious state during the final trial phase, Starkiller encountered the Sith Warrior. Following a protracted and intense confrontation, Starkiller ultimately achieved victory. However, upon regaining consciousness, the specter ominously declared that Starkiller could never elude him.
The Sith Warrior later reappeared on the planet of Kashyyyk through another Force vision. In contrast to the event within the Jedi Temple, he manifested through Starkiller, who perceived himself adorned in the same armor as the warrior. As the Sith Warrior, Starkiller engaged and triumphed over a Jedi Knight within his vision, only to promptly discover that his opponent was, in fact, his own father.
Ultimately, Starkiller averted the future represented by the Sith Warrior. He embraced his birth name, "Galen Marek," and reaffirmed his Jedi lineage, just before he rescued the Rebel Alliance from an untimely demise at the cost of his own existence. Marek's self-sacrifice not only prevented the Alliance's destruction but also shielded him from the destiny embodied by the Sith Warrior—a life as Darth Sidious' slave, perpetually confined within an armored suit for life support purposes.
In 2 BBY, Darth Vader's secret apprentice, known as Starkiller, embarked on a personal quest to uncover his origins. Years of training under the Dark Lord of the Sith's rigorous instruction had effectively suppressed memories of his past and the death of his Jedi father. His search led him to the remains of the Jedi Temple, the former headquarters of the defunct Jedi Order, situated on the Galactic Empire's capital world. Upon discovering a holocron within the Temple's Tower of First Knowledge, a gatekeeper materialized in the guise of his father, urging him to complete the Jedi Trials.
Consequently, the apprentice lapsed into unconsciousness as his mind succumbed to a vision within the Force. Deep within his own mind, Starkiller confronted his connection to the dark side of the Force, personified by an armored Sith Warrior. Though Starkiller remained unaware of his opponent's true nature, the Sith specter also represented a vision of a future where Starkiller would succeed Darth Vader as Emperor Palpatine's dark apprentice.
As their duel intensified, an attack from Starkiller dislodged the Sith Warrior's helmet. However, the revelation of his opponent's identity caused Starkiller to freeze in shock. Despite his extremely pale and scarred forehead, and eyes reflecting profound immersion in the dark side, the Sith Warrior bore Starkiller's face.
The Sith Warrior seized the initiative and forced Starkiller into a defensive posture. Throughout the battle, he alternated between his own form and the appearance of Starkiller clad in the ceremonial robes bestowed posthumously upon Jedi Knights after death. Despite the warrior's combination of saber strikes and Force attacks, Starkiller ultimately emerged victorious after he stabbed the warrior through the abdomen with a lightsaber.
Consequently, the Sith Warrior's body was engulfed in a blinding flash of light. Starkiller found himself back in the chamber where he had discovered the holocron, just before his last trial began. However, upon examining his left hand, he observed the pale skin and clawed fingers of the Sith Warrior, whose voice echoed with the declaration that the apprentice could never escape his dark fate. At that moment, the vision concluded, leaving Starkiller uncertain about the precise meaning of what he had just experienced.
During a mission to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, Starkiller discovered a dilapidated and abandoned hut. Despite experiencing a vague sense of familiarity, his suppressed memories prevented him from recognizing the ruin as the home of his father, Kento Marek. Upon inspecting the hut, Starkiller observed evidence of a lightsaber duel and discovered a blue crystal on the floor. However, as he collected the artifact, the apprentice fell into another Force-induced vision, witnessing and reliving a past battle on Kashyyyk through the eyes and actions of his master, Darth Vader. Through the Dark Lord, the apprentice witnessed the Wookiees' defeat, his father's murder, and his own abduction by Vader.
The vision abruptly shifted, and Starkiller, to his horror, found his appearance transformed into the armored form of the Sith Warrior. Trapped within a body composed of both flesh and machine, the apprentice felt more mechanical than alive. His physical state felt eerily similar to what his master experienced as a cyborg. As Starkiller examined his new form, he was confronted by another version of himself, one who embraced the light as a Jedi Knight.
Embodied and overtaken by the Sith Warrior, Starkiller ignited a red-bladed Sith lightsaber and adopted the Juyo stance, renowned as the most ferocious form of lightsaber combat. Though the Jedi's eyes reflected sorrow and pity, he activated his own lightsaber, producing a blue blade, and assumed the defensive stance of Soresu. Starkiller unleashed a barrage of offensive strikes, and while the Jedi's defensive strategy proved difficult to penetrate, he knew that Soresu could not indefinitely withstand Juyo's attacks.
As the duel progressed, the dark side embodied by the Sith Warrior grew increasingly potent within Starkiller. When the Jedi seized the offensive, Starkiller relied on his Force abilities to counter his adversary's attacks. Employing telekinesis to hurl jagged planks from the hut's walls at the Jedi, Starkiller capitalized on his opponent's distraction and attacked with Force lightning. The Jedi struggled to overcome the agonizing effects of the Sith attack to utilize his lightsaber as a superconducting loop, redirecting Starkiller's own attack back at himself. The resulting explosion of Force energy propelled both Sith and Jedi against opposite corners of the hut.
The pain inflicted by his own attack, coupled with the gruesome sight of his burnt flesh, fueled Starkiller's rage and connection to the dark side of the Force. Drawing upon his anger, the apprentice willed himself upright and suspended above the floor. With an outstretched arm, he telekinetically lifted his Jedi counterpart into the air, mirroring Darth Vader's actions against Kento Marek years prior. The Jedi attempted to reason with the apprentice, but to no avail. Starkiller's mind had been consumed by the dark side, and he laughed gloatingly at his helpless opponent.
With the Jedi at his mercy, the apprentice detached one of the lightsabers from his belt and impaled the Jedi's shoulder with it. He then used his lightsaber to finish off the Jedi. Despite this, the Jedi remained alive. Annoyed, Starkiller summoned the Jedi's own blade to his hand and stabbed him. As the Jedi's lifeless body collapsed on the floor, the apprentice felt a surge of the dark side wash over him. He reveled in the sensation, relished his victory, and perceived himself as the living embodiment of power.
However, at that moment, another figure appeared in the hut, expressing remorse over Starkiller's life as a Sith assassin. When the apprentice turned, lightsaber retrieved and drawn instantaneously, he recognized the figure as his deceased father, the former Jedi Kento Marek. He gazed at the body of the fallen Jedi Knight whom Starkiller had slain, then stared once more at the dark side version of his son with grief and loss in his eyes. Before vanishing, he apologized to Starkiller, whom he addressed as "Galen."
Starkiller never realized the destiny represented by the Sith Warrior as a Force-induced vision: a cybernetic apprentice and Sith assassin of Emperor Palpatine. His master's second betrayal on Corellia, combined with Starkiller's attachment to his allies, ultimately disillusioned the apprentice with the Sith and the Galactic Empire. Consequently, he reclaimed his birth name, Galen Marek, and immediately embarked on a mission to rescue the leaders of the newly formed Alliance to Restore the Republic.
His infiltration of the incomplete Death Star culminated in a final duel between Marek and his former master, resulting in Darth Vader's near-death. Though tempted to execute Vader at Palpatine's behest, Marek chose to reject the dark side of the Force. Ultimately, he sacrificed his life to enable the Rogue Shadow, piloted by Juno Eclipse, to extract the Rebel leaders from the battle station. Consequently, Marek's premature death prevented his future as a Dark Lord of the Sith.
Although Galen Marek perished, the life he could have lived, as reflected by the Sith Warrior, was not entirely extinguished. In secret, Darth Vader sought to recreate his fallen apprentice. He transported Marek's corpse to Kamino and preserved it as a clone template. Utilizing the advanced technology of the Kaminoans, the Dark Lord embarked on a lengthy and arduous task of cloning his former apprentice. The ultimate objective was to create a clone possessing all of Marek's power and skills, but devoid of the emotions that Vader deemed "weaknesses." However, cloning a Force-sensitive subject's DNA was considered theoretically impossible, rendering the process fraught with trial and error. After several months of producing various genetic failures, including a renegade clone who escaped from Kamino, a single clone was successfully engineered without any of his precursors' flaws.
Through the accelerated cloning process, the clone was bred to adulthood within a few standard weeks; memory flashes of his progenitor's life imbued him with Galen Marek's knowledge and experience. The same process had been applied to previous clones. The initial subjects were physically deformed and mentally unstable. More stable versions suffered from an identity crisis due to possessing another man's memories. However, the clone deemed "perfect" by Vader compartmentalized Marek's memories, successfully separating them from his own experiences. As Darth Vader's new apprentice and the sole success in a lineage of failures, the clone effectively embodied what the Sith Warrior represented for Marek—a Sith assassin completely immersed in the dark side of the Force.
Like Starkiller, the Sith Warrior was a proficient master of the dark side of the Force. His repertoire of techniques encompassed Sith lightning and various forms of telekinesis, including Force push, Force repulse, and Force throw. He was also, like Galen Marek, highly skilled in lightsaber combat. He was an expert Djem So practitioner, but also utilized Dun Moch when required. He displayed incredible reflexes and durability, shown in his first duel with Starkiller, where he manages to remain standing against his opponent for a long time and comes close to defeating him. As a "dark" mirror version of the apprentice, the Sith Warrior also utilized the unorthodox reverse-grip form of Shien.
The Sith Warrior's body was encased in a suit of armor, painfully grafted to his flesh and bone, intended to instill fear in both Jedi and Sith. The suit incorporated cybernetic enhancements as well. His fingers were replaced with artificial claws sharp enough to cut bone. His wrists and forearms were a fusion of flesh and machine, extending up to his shoulders and concealed beneath a high, metal collar protecting his neck. The remaining skin on his forearms was scarred and disfigured.
The armor featured a ribbed vest of flexible armor plates and a series of leather belts around the wearer's waist. Several lightsabers, of both Jedi and Sith design, adorned the belts as trophies. Beneath the armored suit, the Sith Warrior wore tight black garments. His face was completely concealed by a helmet resembling an Ubese mask, but with a Mandalorian-style visor in the center of the faceplate.
The suit's overall function resembled the armor worn by Darth Vader. Like Vader's mask, the Sith Warrior's helmet included a breathing apparatus, although the mechanism appeared to be controlled by the wearer, as the breathing pattern was forced and erratic. However, despite its role as a life-support system, the Sith Warrior's armor lacked the limitations of Vader's armor. While Vader was physically hindered by his armor, which also restricted his ability to utilize the dark side of the Force, the Sith Warrior retained the same speed and agility that Starkiller possessed without the armor. Furthermore, the armor preserved the Sith Warrior's ability to generate Force lightning and did not appear to limit any of his other techniques.
The Sith Warrior wears the same armor that Galen Marek (codenamed "Starkiller") wore in the non-canonical dark side ending of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. In this alternate conclusion to the video game, Marek reverts to the dark side of the Force and kills his former master, Darth Vader. However, he fails to assassinate Emperor Palpatine, sustaining severe injuries. To preserve Marek's life, the Emperor confines him within a suit of armor. As the Emperor's new apprentice and personal assassin, Marek becomes Lord Starkiller, realizing the "dark future" represented by the Sith Warrior during the Jedi Temple level in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition.
During the fight between the apprentice and the Sith Warrior in the Jedi Temple level, the warrior occasionally transforms into a Jedi version of Starkiller, clad in the ceremonial robes posthumously awarded to deceased Jedi. Thus, the Sith Warrior's two distinct forms represented the apprentice's two possible fates. In the Sith stalker armor, the warrior mirrors Starkiller's life as Palpatine's apprentice. As the Jedi wearing the ceremonial robes, he reflects the canon ending of the video game—Starkiller's sacrificial death.
The Sith Warrior also appears in the novelization. On Kashyyyk, Starkiller experiences a vision in the Force, where his body transforms into the Sith Warrior's armored form. As he duels a Jedi Knight version of himself, Starkiller nearly succumbs entirely to the dark side, reveling in the power it grants him.
The Sith stalker armor's appearance in the Jedi Temple DLC (Downloadable Content) level in the Ultimate Sith Edition, as well as its inclusion (via a Force vision) in the novel, effectively integrates it into the canon. The Sith Warrior's voice and appearance were provided by Sam Witwer, the actor who portrayed Galen Marek.
The apprentice's leather belts in this costume feature six lightsabers and extra lightsaber hooks. The first "trophy" is Starkiller's original lightsaber, lost in the vacuum of space after his master's initial betrayal. The other weapons include Rahm Kota's lightsaber, retrieved from the defeated Jedi General during the Battle of the TIE Fighter Construction Facility above Nar Shaddaa; the end piece of a lightsaber pike, taken by Starkiller after his victory over Kazdan Paratus on Raxus Prime; one half of the double-bladed lightsaber belonging to Darth Maul; and Darth Vader's lightsaber, seized from him after his death at the hands of his former disciple. Lord Starkiller's new weapon, a Sith lightsaber featuring three spiked emitter guards, is also included on his belts. In the PS2/Wii version, the Sith lightsaber has four emitter guards.
This battle between Marek and this vision was ranked number four on Game Informer's "Top 10 video game shadowselves" in April 2009. It came just behind the likes of Dark Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Cecil's duel with his Dark Knight form so he could become a paladin from Final Fantasy IV, and Dark Samus from the Metroid series' Metroid Prime Trilogy coming in at number one.