A Mon Alone

Player Handout 8: What is known of Sith Battlelords

From Speculations on Tactics of the Sith Reprinted by permission of the Jedi Council Central Library, Coruscant

In the time of the Sith wars, a class of warriors were culled from the ranks to serve as leaders of the regiments sent against the Jedi.  These warriors, the Sith Battlelords, were fearsome and hardy, having demonstrated a willingness to die for the Sith in an attempt to curry favor and enhance their own power. They were feared the galaxy over, and with good reason.  Possessed by a maniacal bloodrage, the battlelords pushed their troops to the edge and beyond.
Loyalty amongst the Sith troops was one of the foremost problems of the armies.  Having seen too many of the Sith fall victim to well-coordinated attacks by groups of skilled Jedi, the Sith began to train individuals who could work together.  Initial attempts failed miserably.

The Sith regime was one of fear and hatred, the army one which would have scarce existed if not for heavy conscription.  Desertions were commonplace, and the stability of the war effort was threatened by the lack of consistency and coordination throughout the ranks.  This, the battlelords were created to remedy.

Precise details on how the battlelords were created have been lost to antiquity, as is probably best. What is known is this:

Following a complex series of rituals, the individual to be raised a Sith Battlelord was brought to the brink of death.  Some claim the prospective battlelord was drained of all blood, though no consensus exists on how the near-death experience was to be accomplished.  Once the man (or, less frequently, the woman) hovered on the brink, he was removed from the temple chambers (most reports put the ceremony in an altar room) by the members of his regiment.  For the next hour, the members of the regiment paraded past their leader, viewing his near-lifeless body.  After the regiment had seen the battlelord, he was healed, brought back from the brink and made whole once more.

The effects of this ritual were initially startling, even to the Sith.  The desired effect had been one of cohesion. The obtained effect was much, much stronger.
Evidence suggests that the ritualistic death and ceremonial rebirth of the battlelord created a bond between the battlelord and his troops, as well as among the troops.  The precise nature of the bond remains obscured, but it is clear that the Sith magics drew upon the power of the dark side to create a near-physical linkage among the affected individuals.  Separation of the regiment from one another, or from their battlelord, without undoing the creation magics, resulted in intense physical pain for the regiment, and visions of his own destruction for the battlelord.

Attempts at desertion were not dealt with any more harshly by the Sith commanders than had been the case prior to the creation of the battlelords. The armies themselves dealt with deserters much more angrily, however, as every deserter threw the entire regiment into fits of agony while simultaneously making the battlelord extremely unpleasant to be around.  Even for a battlelord.  Most deserters were hunted down within a matter of hours and killed by the other members of their own regiment, or were taken back to their battlelord for slow, painful justice.

What follows is an account relayed to Jedi Master Kei Loo Bross by a captured Sith warrior bonded to Sith Battlelord Farh j’Hien.  It is believed that the transcription by Master Bross is accurate, though certain of the warrior’s terms remain unclear. Phonetic approximations are provided for words not in the lexicon of Master Bross.

“Lord j’Hien commands all escara jian.  Many men fight for Lord j’Hien, kind Jedi meiyok ahndahl die. All Sith fight together under Lord j’Hien.  Fighting apart many Sith die.  Moving apart many Sith die. Please kind Jedi meiyok ahndahl die.  Remove pain.  All escara jian leave Sith.  Remove pain and I serve Jedi loyally.”

Master Bross offered the following observations on the Sith warrior’s demeanor.  “He seemed certain I could help him, but had much trouble speaking, doubled over as he was, clutching at his gut.  He looked as though he had been running for days, eyes red and bleary, face drenched with sweat, uniform in tatters.

Many of his kind had we seen in the past, those who had proven too weak for the Sith armies and run away to escape the torment.  As with so many we had found recently, this one had a special attachment to one of their generals, a Battlelord named j’Hien.  Examining him with the Force allows us to see a strand of black, leading back in the direction from which he came.  Presumably, this is the manifestation of his connection to the Battlelord, which is likely causing his pain.

“It seems that the Sith, unable to inspire their troops to devotion, have elected to forcefully tie their warriors to the commanders.  I have no doubt that this soldier will die if he is too long away from his fellows. It is a very effective tool.  And very Sith.”

What Master Bross failed to learn, which has since been inferred from other writings and inscriptions on the walls of various Sith temples, was that the pain was shared by those who were left behind.  This certainly seemed to have the desired effect.  When problem warriors emerged, they were dealt with internally. When they deserted, they were hunted and killed.  The surviving members of the regiment garnered an additional blood-bond through having killed one of their own, and the Sith were well-pleased.

The advent of the battlelords threatened for a time to further turn the tide of the Sith wars in the favor of the dark side. Shortly, however, the Jedi discovered the presence of key individuals on the battlefield who served much more than an inspirational role. Killing the battlelords released the warriors they had bonded, and with that release, entire regiments often fled the field.  Given the choice between killing armies, and killing key individuals, the Jedi began targeting battlelords.