Darth Mortis

"If you had lived as long as I have, Thanaton, you would not revere the past so unquestioningly."

- Darth Mortis Darth Mortis was a Human male Sith Lord who served on the resurgent Sith Empire's ruling Dark Council during the Cold War with the Galactic Republic. One of the twelve Dark Lords of the Sith who sat on the Council, Mortis presided over the Sphere of Laws and Justice.

As head of the Sphere, Mortis was charged with overseeing the Imperial justice system and those branches of the Empire that maintained the law within its society. By the end of the Cold War, Mortis had also begun training a Sith apprentice named Zavrasha, and he dispatched her to the neutral moon of Nar Shaddaa in order to ensure that Admiral Ange's efforts there did not endanger the peace brought about by Treaty of Coruscant. The Sith Lord Darth Gravus, who was placed in charge of the Imperial occupation of Taris, was a political ally of Mortis.

As the Galactic War broke out with the Republic, Darth Mortis and the other members of the Council were summoned by fellow Councilor Darth Baras to their meeting chamber on Korriban. Darth Decimus, Hadra, and Acharon were overseeing the Battle of Corellia, so the three attended via hologram. Darths Marr and Ravage were present on Korriban with Mortis, where Baras attempted to declare himself the Voice of the Emperor; the public extension of the Sith Emperor's will and thereby the ruler of the entire Empire. However, Baras was interrupted by the arrival of Darth Vowrawn and Baras' former apprentice. The Sith Warrior, who had been appointed as the Emperor's Wrath after Baras had betrayed his student, battled the false Voice before the rest of the Council.

After the Wrath killed Baras, Darth Vowrawn led Mortis and the others in acknowledging the truth of the Emperor's support for the warrior, accepting that the Wrath was not bound by the Council's wishes. When the Wrath departed, Darth Thanaton brought his own matter before his fellow Councilors: the head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge was engaged in a Kaggath, an ancient Sith ritual duel, against his rival and subordinate Lord Kallig. After being bested by Kallig on Corellia, Thanaton appealed to Mortis, Ravage, Vowrawn, and Marr to eliminate the upstart slave, though the other Dark Councilors refused to interfere when Kallig arrived to continue their battle. After Kallig defeated Thanaton and forced him to submit, Mortis rose from his seat and apologized to his fellow Councilor before breaking his neck with the Force. Acknowledging Kallig as the victor, the four Dark Councilors present rewarded the young Sith Lord with Thanaton's now-vacant seat on the Council, and they brushed off the newly-appointed Darth Nox's question when the Emperor would meet with the Council. As the Council adjourned, Mortis advised Nox to return Dromund Kaas and ensure the loyalty of their followers, promising to summon Nox the next time the Dark Council congregates.

After the Battle of Corellia ended with a Republic victory and the deaths of Decimus, Hadra, and Acharon, the Dark Council was angered to learn that the Sith Lord Darth Malgus declared his own empire on the planet Ilum; an empire that did not discriminate against alien species and was not beholden to the political infighting that the current Empire was. Mortis assumed a leadership role on the Council along with Marr and Ravage, dispatching Grand Moff Ilyan Regus and Darth Arho, Baras' successor as head of the Sphere of Military Offense, to conduct the campaign against both Malgus and the Republic there. Mortis and the other Councilors would later meet in their chambers beneath the Imperial Citadel on the capital of Dromund Kaas to debate who would succeed Darth Hadra as the head of the Sphere of Technology, and Mortis was one of several Councilors who refused to support Darth Marr's candidate, the Falleen Darth Karrid. Mortis believed that the Empire was wrong in adopting Malgus' policy of allowing aliens to join their ranks, and he proposed the Human traditionalist Darth Gravus in opposition to Karrid. To that end, he tried to convince the rest of the Council to grant Gravus a seat once he reclaimed the mineral-rich world of Leritor. After Karrid disposed of Gravus, Mortis chose to support Karrid, admitting that he had underestimated her.