Darth Malak

"Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all things, Revan, and yet you are nothing. In the end you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone." -- Darth Malak

Darth Malak is a character from the fictional Star Wars universe. He was introduced in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) for the XBox and PC platforms. The events of Knights of the Old Republic take place 4,000 years prior to the events of the Star Wars feature films.

Darth Malak was a pale-skinned human who is either bald or who shaves his head (shaving is likely as his Sith apprentices also go bare-headed; it may perhaps be a Sith custom). His head was tattooed, and a large metal shield covered his face from the nose down. The shield is a prosthetic made necessary by a ghastly injury that occurred at an unknown point prior to his becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith. He wore a skin-tight red-orange costume that showed off his powerful physique, draped in a cape of blood-red cloth. He always carried his lightsaber with him.

Darth Malak was a master swordsman and an adept Force user. Some powers he exhibited include Force Lightning, Drain Life, Stasis, and Choke.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Early Career

Malak and his friend, Revan, were Jedi assigned to the Order's enclave on Dantooine. While they were there, they discovered a star map that had been left on the planet by the Rakata, a species that had ruled the galaxy in the distant past.

When the Mandalorian War began and Outer Rim planets began falling, Revan defied the Jedi and insisted on defending the galaxy alongside the Republic. The first to follow him was Malak, his closest friend. Together they rallied many young Jedi and began destroying the Mandalorians in battle after battle, finally defeating the pirate leader above Malachor V. The pair took the fleet, however, and passed beyond known space, insisting that they had to destroy the remnants of the Mandalorian armada. While beyond the Rim, they found the Star Forge and were corrupted by it.

Malak and Revan had left the Republic as heroes and returned as Sith Lords to conquer. Using persuasion and violence they wrested control of a large space fleet from the Republic and began their career of conquest. As Revan was the slightly stronger of the two Dark Lords, Malak reluctantly consented to be Revan's apprentice. He chaffed under Revan's control, though, and awaited the opportunity to replace his master at the most opportune moment.

Dark Lord of the Sith

The moment came when a Republic strike team, led by Jedi Sentinel Bastila Shan, staged an assault on Revan's flagship. In an attempt to slay the powerful Jedi and his master at the same time, Malak ordered his ship's guns to fire on Revan's ship. Malak believed that Revan was dead and assumed the command of the Sith Empire.

While the war against the Republic was going very well, he feared Bastila. Her rare gift of Battle Meditation made her a threat to the entire Sith war effort. Darth Malak expended tremendous resources in an attempt to locate and capture her.

Malak nearly succeeded once when he blockaded the planet Taris. Although he had the planet laid waste to prevent Bastila's escape, she nonetheless was able to return unharmed to Dantooine accompanied by her rescuers. Among these heroes were two citizens of Taris, Mission Vao and Zaalbar; Republic pilot Carth Onasi; the utility droid T3-M4; and a crewmember from the cruiser Endar Spire.

Bastila and her new friends left Dantooine in search of the source of Malak's power. While on their search, Bastila was captured by Malak. Malak corrupted Bastila to the Dark Side of the Force and made her his apprentice. (Malak's previous apprentice, Star Forge. The Star Forge was an enormous space station and battle dreadnought constructed by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata. The Rakata were a technologically advanced but savage species who extended their power through the galaxy through conquest. The Star Forge was constructed in a heliostationary orbit above one of the poles of their home star. There, the Star Forge fed on the star's energetic hydrogen and the Dark Side of the Force to produce an unending supply of starfighters, capital ships, and war droids for the Rakata prior to their collapse, and now for the Sith.

The heroes on the quest for the Star Forge called in the Republic fleet to attack the Sith. For a while, it looked as if Malak would be able to destroy his foes in a single, glorious day. Fate -- or the Force -- handed Malak a stunning defeat, however, and it would be he who would die when his former master, Revan, returned; during the battle, his old master boarded the Star Forge in the Ebon Hawk, defeated an attack force of Forge droids, slew nearly the entire pool of Malak's Dark Jedi apprentices, and finally killed him in single combat.

Quotes

"Wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy!"

"You are strong, child--but I will break you!"

"Still . . . still spouting the wisdom the Jedi, I see. Maybe there is more truth in their code than I ever believed. I . . . I cannot help but wonder, Revan. What would have happened had our positions been reversed? What if fate had decreed I would be captured by the Jedi? Could I have returned to the light, as you did? If you had not led me down the dark path in the first place, what destiny would I have found?"

"I wanted to be Master of the Sith and ruler of the galaxy. But that destiny was not mine, Revan. It might have been yours, perhaps . . . but never mine. And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing."