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 3,956 years prior to the Battle of Yavin.
Darth Malak was a bald, pale-skinned human. His head was adorned with a large durasteel plate that covered his face from below the nose on down. The prosthetic was made necessary by a ghastly injury that completely severed his lower jaw. How Malak received this injury is a source of much debate between fan-fiction writers ranging from that he lost it during the Mandalorian Wars, during the war against the Republic, or during a fight with Revan. It is most likely that Malak lost his jaw during the War against the Republic, as the Star Wars official databank states that he lost it in a lightsaber duel. It is unlikely that Revan was the one who cut off Malak's jaw, because the fact that Malak never duelled Revan and was a point of contention between the two in the actual game. To further confound the issue, it has never been canonically stated how Malak lost his jaw. He wore skin-tight red-orange body armor that showed off his powerful physique, draped in a cape of dark cloth. He always carried his lightsaber with him.
Darth Malak was a master swordsman, and an adept Force-user, excelling particularly in such dark side skills as Force lightning, Life Drain, and Force choking. He also excelled in Lightsaber Throw and Stasis. Darth Malak used an improved lightsaber that produced a longer blade, if compared to the standard sabers. The hilt was identical to that of shorter lightsabers. This item can be obtained in-game through the use of the Kotor Savegame Editor, a program used to modify game variables.
Like many Sith Lords before and after him, Malak's name could be derived from real languages - Mala is Latin for "jawbone," a reference to the fact that Malak has none and speaks through a vocabulator. Similarly, the word malus means "bad" or "evil" in Latin, and has left its stem mal in modern Romance languages such as Spanish and French, possibly in reference to Malak's fall to the dark side. Another English word that relates to his name is malice, meaning "intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way; to take pleasure in another's misfortune"[1], reflecting Malak's personality. Curiously, the Arabic word "malak" means "angel," and "malik" means "king." Also, Malak Ta'us is a common name for the Yazidi religion's Peacock Angel figure, Melek Taus, a figure sometimes identified with Lucifer by Christians, or Shaitan by Orthodox Muslims. The name also could be a biblical reference to the Book of Malachi, in which the name Malachi means "messenger" - Malak was indeed Revan's messenger/henchman, and like the Biblical Malachi, he questions God's (or Revan's or The Force's) love for them, as well as causing "the people come to believe that no good comes out of serving God." [2] Another Biblical reference is Moloch, especially as heard in John Milton's famous epic poem Paradise Lost, where he appears as "a fierce devil who wishes to be equal to God or annihilated in the struggle, [and] argues for open war". One of the most famous lines of the poem resonates with respect to the game's plot: "Here at least / we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built / Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: / Here we may reign secure, and in my choice / to reign is worth ambition though in Hell: / Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
Early career
Malak and his best friend, Revan, were Jedi that were connected 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 Wars began and Outer Rim planets began to fall, Revan defied the Jedi Council and insisted on defending the galaxy alongside the Old Republic starfleet. The first to follow him was Malak. Together they rallied many young Jedi and began destroying the Mandalorians in battle after battle, finally defeating the mercenary leader, Mandalore the Ultimate, above Malachor V. The duo took their 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, an ancient marvel of Rakatan engineering. Corrupted by the side energies present in and the power by the Star Maps and Star forge, Revan and Malak fell to the dark side and founded a new Sith Empire out of the Jedi and Republic forces who still followed them. However, it is hinted in the sequel that Revan was not, in fact, corrupted, but chose the dark side merely to conquer, and ultimately strengthen the Republic against some unknown threat.
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, at last taking the mantle of Dark Lord for his own.
While the war against the Republic was going very well, he feared Bastila's gift of Battle Meditation, a rare Force power that enabled her to strengthen the Republic forces' resolve and coordinate their fighting effort while sapping the will of their enemies, making her a threat to the entire Sith war effort. Malak expended tremendous resources in an attempt to locate her.
Malak nearly succeeded once when he blockaded the planet Taris. Although he had the planet destroyed 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; Canderous Ordo; and Revan himself, his mind reprogrammed as a crewmember from the Republic cruiser Endar Spire.
Bastila and her companions 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, Darth Bandon, had recently been killed in action by Revan.)
It is not surprising that Malak's fate would be connected with Bastila's. The two were very much alike -- courageous, arrogant, and heedless of the warnings of their Jedi instructors to beware the call of the dark side. But the true reason Malak chose Bastila for his apprentice was the unimaginable advantages the Sith Empire could gain from her Battle Meditation. Among the Sith, there is no such thing as camaraderie.
The Final Battle
The source of this power was the subject of the Star Map that Malak and Revan had discovered on Dantooine long ago: the 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 throughout the galaxy by means of conquest. The Star Forge was constructed 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; and old friend, Revan, returned. During the battle, his old master boarded the giant machine in the Ebon Hawk, defeated an attack force of Forge droids, slew nearly the entire pool of Malak's Dark Jedi and Sith apprentices, redeemed Bastila (depending on how the game was played; he could also kill her if he wished), and finally killed his old friend in single combat.
Malak tried to blame Revan for his fate, but then admitted that, in the end, the only person he had to blame was himself. Humbled by that knowledge, still bested by Revan despite all his clever plans and conquests, Malak, realizing that nothing he had ever done or could ever do could compare to the things done by his former master, at last acknowledged his inferiority, and his final words were the truest he had ever spoken: "And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing."
Trivia
- Malak is the only character in the KOTOR games that has his own visible lightsaber style. He holds it with one hand rather then with both.
See also
External link
- Malak on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki