Freedon Nadd

"Come to the dark side now, when it calls, or you will have failed. The dark side will forever shun you, the weak-minded fool who believed he had the right to wield its power!"

- Freedon Nadd Freedon Nadd was a fallen Jedi prodigy whose conscious decision to embrace the dark side of the Force had a significant impact on galactic events for many generations after his death. Nadd's began as a student in training on the planet Ossus, but a lust for greater power caused him to slay his Master, Matta Tremayne, and renounce his affiliation with the Jedi Order. He fled Ossus and made his way to the heart of the old Sith Empire, where he gained an enormous wealth of dark side knowledge. He eventually followed the Force to the jungle moon of Yavin 4, where he found and apprenticed himself to the ancient Dark Lord Naga Sadow. Sadow trained Nadd in the Sith arts, and led the young Jedi even further down the dark path. When he determined that he had learned all his Sith Master had to offer, Nadd used his newfound powers to destroy Sadow and left Yavin 4 behind in search of a world to conquer as his own.

He proclaimed himself Dark Lord of the Sith, and used his sorcerous powers to subjugate the world of Onderon, where he ruled as king from the capital of Iziz for more than a hundred years until his physical demise. His body was entombed below the royal palace of Iziz, which became a focal point of Sith power. Nadd's spirit lingered in the tomb, from whence it taught the descendants of his bloodline and further steeped Onderon in the miasma that was the dark side of the Force.

By 4000 BBY, the exaltation of Freedon Nadd's memory was the catalyst for the final battle of the centuries-spanning Beast Wars of Onderon, a conflict that arose between the citizens of Iziz who worshiped the deceased Dark Lord and those who had been cast out for their refusal to pledge allegiance to the Sith. A team of Jedi Knights led by Arkanian Master Arca Jeth came to Onderon, ended the battle, and brought a temporary halt to Nadd's influence over the planet with the defeat of Queen Amanoa. However, Amanoa's husband, King Ommin, reasserted Sith influence over the planet when he summoned Freedon Nadd's spirit from Chaos. The restored Naddist cult then rose up in arms and stole the Dark Lord's sarcophagus in a surprise attack during Amanoa's funeral. Nadd revealed himself to the Jedi and participated in the capture of Arca Jeth, who was ultimately rescued by the Jedi after the defeat of King Ommin during the final stages of the Naddist insurrection. Conceding failure, Nadd abandoned Ommin to the mercy of the Jedi, and his spirit was forever banished from Onderon by the power of Arca Jeth. Prior to his departure, however, Nadd happened upon Tetan socialites Aleema and Satal Keto—who had come to Onderon in search of dark side knowledge—and chose to pass the Sith teachings on to them. While Nadd's tomb was relocated to Onderon's jungle moon by the Jedi, his spirit appeared to one of them, Ulic Qel-Droma, and foretold the young Knight's destiny as a Lord of the Sith.

For months Freedon Nadd trained the Ketos in Sith magic, but his interests shifted when Exar Kun, a powerful fallen Jedi with dark side curiosities, stirred the Dark Lord's spirit from within his lunar grave. Nadd guided Kun to the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban where, through a series of trials designed to test his resolve, he decided that Exar Kun was worthy of Sith apprenticeship. Nadd then led Kun to the ancient dwellings of his own Sith Master on Yavin 4 and was pleased when Kun wholeheartedly embraced the Sith after he defeated an enormous Sith wyrm and subjugated the native Massassi warriors. Finally convinced that his apprentice had become one with the dark side, Nadd revealed his need for Exar Kun to create a physical body for him through alchemical means, that he might once again command the power of the Force. Kun, however, refused to entertain Nadd any longer, and in that moment betrayed him. His apprentice's strength tremendously amplified by a Sith amulet, Nadd was attacked by Kun with a potent blast of Force energy that mortally wounded the Sith spirit. Consigned to oblivion for a second time, Nadd contacted the Ketos in his final act and warned them of the threat that Exar Kun posed. He then declared that, along with Ulic Qel-Droma, the future of the Sith rested with Satal and Aleema, before fading into Chaos and dying a second death.

Biography
Four hundred years before the outbreak of the Great Sith War, Freedon Nadd appeared on the Jedi Library world of Ossus to begin his Jedi training. Upon his initial arrival, the Jedi Masters on Ossus were astounded by the level of knowledge and proficiency that Nadd demonstrated through his use of the Force. Likewise, the Masters were also impressed with his openness and efforts to attain universal harmony. Under the guidance of his teachers, Nadd learned to willingly trust in the Force and to immerse himself in its fabrics.[2]Many of the Masters on Ossus actively took part in Nadd's training, including the progenitor of the Great Jedi Library, Odan-Urr himself. Nadd's teachers all agreed that he would become a Jedi Master far sooner than any other student who had come before him—if not in technique, then in understanding of the Force.

Nadd's first test, however, came in an unexpected form when the time arose to grant several apprentices the rank of Jedi Knight. He fully believed that his own promotion to Knight was imminent, but was shocked when the Masters passed over him entirely. With their final decision made, Nadd's universe seemed to collapse around him. As he dwelt on the situation, feelings of hurt and despair began to cloud his mind. He could not understand why the Masters had not graduated him as a reward for all of the progress and hard work he had demonstrated during his time on Ossus. The fact that he had been denied the rank of Jedi Knight caused an enormous internal conflict to take place within Nadd's mind.

Becoming Dark Lord of the Sith
Traveling to the area of space where the Sith Empire had once ruled, Nadd searched for the Sith  which led him to the planet Ashas Ree. There he rediscovered the original Sith holocron of King Adas, a Sith species ruler of Korriban for 300 years which had been lost several hundred years earlier by a Sith Lord named Garu. Nadd continued his search across the expanse of the old empire, but when he failed to find any of the members of the original Sith species, disillusionment threatened to end his journey prematurely. His fortune finally made a turn for the better when he learned of the legendary Dark Lord Naga Sadow, and his forced exile on Yavin 4. When he landed on Yavin 4, Nadd encountered the Massassi, a Sith subspecies that had been alchemically bred generations ago by Sadow himself. They immediately set upon him, but the power Nadd had gained during his expedition served him well as the Massassi deemed him worthy of Naga Sadow's consideration. Nadd was led to Yavin's Great Temple, where he roused Sadow's spirit from his centuries-long slumber. The Dark Lord realized that Nadd was indeed a prime candidate for his dark legacy and took the fallen Jedi as his Sith apprentice. Nadd learned all he could from Sadow and even mastered his teachings in the magic of the Sith. However, Nadd's training eventually came to a halt because, according to tradition, only one being could hold the position of Dark Lord of the Sith - which Sadow, though in spirit-form, still occupied. When he believed that he had learned all that Sadow had to offer, Nadd compiled the sum of his knowledge into a holocron of his own creation. He then destroyed Sadow's spirit and declared himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith.

Death & Legacy
Nadd would go on to conquer worlds in his name such as Onderon, which garnered a temple in his name on the forest moon of Dxun. His rising power over the planet drew attention to the Jedi Order who through a series of battles defeated Nadd and his forces. As darkness permeated Onderon for centuries after Freedon Nadd's death, his spirit lurked in the physical world and continued to influence the planet's citizens. His tomb, buried deep underneath the palace of Iziz, became a focal point of dark side energy, and adherence to the way of the Sith grew on Onderon as Nadd's lineage was extended. The rulers of Iziz constantly refreshed their skills in the presence of Nadd's spirit, and the Dark Lord readily obliged those who summoned him from Chaos with the desire to study Sith sorcery. Numerous times since his death he would be summoned to corrupt the soul of those seeking to master the dark side of the force. 50 years after Freedon Nadd's spiritual death, his tomb on Dxun was occupied by the forces of the Sith Triumvirate under the Dark Lord Darth Nihilus. The Onderon Civil War broke out that same year, and Nihilus's Sith allied themselves Onderon General Vaklu, the rival and cousin of Onderon's Queen Talia—a direct descendant of Freedon Nadd. This union posed a threat to the united Neo-Crusaders of Mandalore the Preserver, whose base was near Nadd's tomb on Dxun.

Personality
Nadd began life as an eager and happy young man, the dark side would ultimately corrupt him and turn him into a power hungry master of sorcery. As Dark Lord of the Sith, Freedon Nadd wore heavy battle armor and a helmet that also served as the crown with which he signified his kingship. The dark side's poisonous nature affected Nadd outwardly, leaving him with blanched and withered flesh under his protective coverings. When he finally passed into Chaos, Nadd refused to relinquish his ties with the physical realm. Although he was, by his own admission, powerless while in spirit form, Nadd was still able to influence the world of the living through his Sith devotees.

Trivia

 * First appeared in 1993 for the second issue of the first Tales of the Jedi story arc, Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon.
 * His corpse, sarcophagus, and tomb were all featured in the sequel to the Knights of the Old Republic video game, The Sith Lords.