"Exar Kun once the most powerful and dangerous of all the Dark Lords of the Sith in the Old Republic, he was responsible for the deaths of millions four millennia before the Rise of the Empire"

Exar Kun even as a Jedi was seen as one of the strongest members of a very powerful Order, whilst it wasn't the most organised Order it was still very strong with numerous Jedi families providing rich grounds for children with great Force potential.

Exar Kun was trained to perfection by a legendary Jedi Master that fulfilled not only the requirements of a Jedi Battlemaster as he was already a lightsaber instructor of high renown he also more than fulfilled the requirements of a Jedi Weapons Master this was Vodo Siosk-Baas a member of a list of the greatest Jedi Guardians in the entire of the Order's long history. Kun became his top student and this was made clear when Kun defeated Baas in a battle, using the unorthodox something he would later be infamous for.

Now a self-proclaimed Jedi Master, he had a formidable will, repeatedly shrugging off the temptations of the Dark Side, he was doing what he claimed he could do, study the Dark Side without being slowly lured, it took days before Freedon Nadd had to resort to the most basic turning attempts, burying Exar Kun under a mound of rubble, severing his ability to call upon the Light Side, drawing on the Dark Side to drown the young Jedi in it's energies and then removing the bond Kun had to Baas to prevent Kun's attempts to call on his former Jedi Master for help effectively cutting Kun off from any other way of escaping his imminent death, so Kun called upon the Dark Side using Sith Lightning to obliterate the rubble on top of him.

Yet even all of that had not yet corrupted Kun fully, contrary to the beliefs of many historians, Kun did not fall until he arrived on Yavin IV, believing the Jedi had abandoned him to his fate, he would not allow the Sith Wyrm to kill him and unleashed his power to slay the wyrm, finally and completely embracing the Dark Side and now once again self-proclaiming that he Exar Kun was the new Dark Lord of the Sith.

What is interesting is that when Kun finally embraced the Dark Side using the Force to obliterate the rubble on-top of him, Freedon Nadd and all the Ancient Sith spirits convened for the first and only time in recorded history to give Nadd their approval, they saw immense power in this individual so much so that they would openly defy the rule of a being Marka Ragnos himself crowned a Sith Lord: Vitiate, most well known as the Sith Emperor, a move that surely infuriated the Emperor, whom hatched a plan to remove Sith Spirits like that of Naga Sadow, so they would not attempt to get in his way, what is interesting is that they did not attempt to bring down Exar Kun's spirit on this very same planet.

Kun then went about the business of learning Sith Sorceries such as Alchemy and Magic, eventually learning a long list of powerful abilities such as Dark Healing, Force Wound and most importantly his most favoured power the Force Blast an attack of immense proportions with no true defence, as a beam of pure Dark Side energy it made it's damage on other's range from comatose blows to absolute disintegration of beings, even so far as to unleash a devastating barrage of Dark Side energy that totally obliterated Freedon Nadd's spirit and nearly collapsed the tomb around him.

Kun was not lacking in the more run of the mill Force Powers though for his Telekinesis was extremely proficient, he could instantly smash through & penetrate the Force Barriers of even Jedi Masters, he used this ability to even greater effect when he used the Force Crush technique on Odan-Urr an ancient and powerful Jedi Master, a veteran of the Great Hyperspace War and killing him instantly, though whilst his age was considerable and his health was failing like many old Jedi Masters such as Yoda this did not make him a less powerful individual.

He also used a mass Force Stun to freeze the entire Galactic Senate in their seats, massacring them with his apprentice Ulic Qel-Droma, this display greatly impressed Ulic whom admitted that his master's power and capabilities completely eclipsed his own very powerful abilities.

Exar Kun proved his growth as an esoteric powerhouse when he finally unleashed a ritual which allowed him to absorb the power of half a million Massassi warriors that had been long mutated by Naga Sadow's experiments, he became the most powerful being that Nomi Sunrider had ever felt the presence of.

Realising that in this state he could freely go around the galaxy and drain more and more of their power using similar Sith Temples to enact the same ritual and eventually reconstruct his body, the Jedi counter-attacked Kun with the most powerful Light Side technique on record, the Wall of Light, this effectively trapped Kun on Yavin IV, his base of operations and he flew into a rage deciding to annihilate all life on the planet, a firestorm ravaged the surface of the world and Kun's fury was felt across the galaxy by all Force Users, even the now non-sensitive Ulic Qel-Droma.

To go further in-depth into Kun's power we must recognise the fact that he achieved complete and total mastery of Niman, the jack of all trades form and removed any semblance of balance and moderation, instead adopting the infamous Sith dual form of Juyo/Jar'kai combat, making him an overly aggressive and brutal duellist, he was a master of single-saber combat, saberstaff combat and dual blade combat to further these abilities he gained a high proficiency in Ataru, implementing many of it's elements into his fighting style.

He was effectively a multi-formed duellist whom adapted to the situation and the needs of the moment, essentially he was able to fight almost anybody on equal ground because he didn't have a weakness in his form, because he would tailor his own fighting style to maximum effect against whatever type of opponent he was facing.

Multiple or singular, non-sensitive, Force User or even a powerful Sith Spirit, he had an effective means of fighting anything, he used Niman's ability to mix and match his force powers to great effect.

But perhaps the most interesting and unorthodox part of Kun's fighting style was his weapon and more so how he used it, Kun wielded a saberstaff which only had the length of a single hilt lightsaber, so not only would he be able to open up with one blade, he could at any point reveal a secondary blade, to make this worse for his opponent, he did not use both hands to wield the weapon, whilst he could with great effect he very clearly preferred not to, using his other hand to take maximum advantage of his force powers and even worse his lightsaber was a dual-phase weapon, allowing him to randomly lengthen and shorten either blade to confuse and overwhelm his opponent.

To supplement this fighting style he required great strength, but on top of this his strength was very heavily imbued with the Force and later the power of Dark Rage which made him too strong for almost anyone to defend against.

Sometimes he would adopt a Force only stance, leaving his unique lightsaber on his belt and using only the Force to batter down the opponent be it with Telekinesis smashing through force barriers and devastating walls, Force Lightning that he could use to stun opponents, a Force Wound to instantly break through powerful Force Barriers to either seriously injure or kill and then of course his most favoured killing method the Force Blast, the magnitude of this ability was equal to the desperation of which Kun needed to use it's power, if he was being overwhelmed he would unleash a barrage of Dark Side energy to totally obliterate an entire area, but if he was in full control he would simply and instantly unleash this power to knock his opponents out cold, with no adequate defence against Dark Side energy, this technique would be lethal to almost anything.

But when it came to the more varied techniques he certainly was not lacking, he could use Force Flight to greatly enhance the Ataru elements he adopted into his set of techniques and skills, he had a strong command of Dark Healing allowing him to instantly heal serious injuries such as when he had his ribs broken after a hallway collapsed on him and when he arrived on Yavin IV injured and was over-whelmed, captured and tortured by Massassi Warriors he unleashed his great power to destroy a Sith Wyrm and instantly heal all of his injuries.

Kun also had a very deep knowledge and command over the esoteric powers such as Alchemy, which he used to create the Terentateks, large and powerful Sith War Beasts that hunted down Force Users, he could also clearly use rituals to absorb life energy, this continuously empowered his spirit, allowing it to remain. He eventually would have used this technique but much more effortlessly to recreate his own body and return to the world of the living.... 4,000 years later.

By this time he had become a frightening apparition, Corran Horn had his own unfortunate encounter with Exar Kun:

Kun flicked a finger at me, sending me whirling across the courtyard. I tried to gather the Force around me to protect myself, but the shock at my error kept me from it. I slammed into an obsidian wall and heard a bone in my right forearm crack. I clutched the limb to my chest, but Kun spun me again, smashing my flank into a low wall. Ribs crunched with that impact and I felt something inside go, as well. Kun was enjoying himself, probably for the first time in millennia, the very thought of which made me vomit. Kun's laughter echoed through his stronghold as he pitched me around, dancing me and rolling me back and forth across the courtyard. I thought his actions were haphazard, especially when he lifted me into the air, then dashed me down, shattering my left leg, but even through the pain I had a clarity of mind. He wanted me thinking, not dead, yet, and that made my stomach roll again.

Eventually, like a child tiring of a toy, he let me go. I slumped to my side and involuntarily flinched as his shade came to cover me.

 

"Just because you never saw me affect the material world, it doesn't mean I couldn't. and even if it is something of an effort to do so, here, in my stronghold, it is a pleasure beyond your's that are possible."

Kun's numerous Sith temples however could do him no good in his ethereal form, he was starved of Force Energy, lacking a living body and it took great concentration for him to summon the power to physically destroy Corran Horn, but once he drained Gantoris of his life energy, he could ravage the surrounding area and once he possessed Kyp Durron, he took over his body completely and ravaged Luke Skywalker:

"With the Sun Crusher looming behind him, Kyp stretched out both hands and blasted Luke with lightning bolts like black cracks in the Force. Dark tendrils rose up from gaps in the temple flagstones, fanged, illusory vipers that struck at him from all sides.

 

The ancient Dark Lord of the Sith lashed out with waves of blackness, driving long icicles of frozen poison into Luke's body. He thrashed, but felt helpless. To lose control to anger and desperation would be as great a failure as if he did nothing at all."

Luke's spirit was torn from his body by Kun, whose esoteric use of Force Lightning completely incapacitated him.

It was not until the spirits of Luke and Master Baas convened that they could combine their power with the raw power of all the Jedi remaining in the Academy, that they finally forced the spirit of Exar Kun into the void of the Dark Side.

So as we can see, Kun was a terrifyingly powerful Sith Lord, one of the most powerful Sith on record, one can only imagine the death and destruction he would have wrought had he not been foiled for a second time by the combined might of the Jedi.

His name and legacy remained throughout the eras as a name the Jedi Order would never forget, he himself was even referred to as the Third Great Schism by some for causing the downfall of numerous promising Jedi Knights, including one that would later come to be known as the Sith Lord of Pain.

The path he laid would give way to more and more Jedi such as Revan and Alek Squinquargersimus following in his foot steps to the Dark Side, Jedi like Revan had many times heard the warnings that came from the Jedi stories of the Great Sith Wars, but that only started a flame in their hearts, for Revan and Alek had shown yet another similarity to Kun's fall.... a thirst for knowledge which some say resembled a thirst for power.

Exar Kun and even his apprentice Ulic Qel-Droma would live forever on record as the infamous instigators of the Old Sith Wars which almost led to the Republic and Jedi's complete destruction.

The following sources were used for this information: Tales of the Jedi, Power of the Jedi, Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide Collector's Edition, The Essential Guide to Characters, The Essential Guide to Warfare, Star Wars Encyclopedia and the Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia.

I changed my usual writing style to write it in a more interesting fashion, hope I did alright.

Of course! Pretty awesome read! Exar Kun fan myself as well

interesting content and thoroughly researched but way too many run-on sentences makes it hard to read. intriguing article though.

I apologise, I was trying to cram as much detail as I could into this one post, as there is a limit to how long your posts can be.

You wouldn't mind if I used this information for future BattleZone analyses on Exar Kun, would you?

I would be honoured Aurbere.

I would be honoured Aurbere.

Thank you. This is truly impressive work.

Thank you. This is truly impressive work.

Thanks, I just wanted to give people a detailed review of exactly what kind of power he had, there is a highly varied opinion of how good he actually is and I thought this thread would give us a much deeper view of him.

Thanks, I just wanted to give people a detailed review of exactly what kind of power he had, there is a highly varied opinion of how good he actually is and I thought this thread would give us a much deeper view of him.

Mission accomplished.

I read the entire post. I found it easy to read, and interesting. I am glad I read it. I heard about Exar Kun before but I like how you elaborated on many of his seemingly climatic moments. I am oblivious as to how he did anything during Luke Skywalkers time though.. He was alive before SWTOR times I thought. I'm guessing his force spirit possessed creatures to attack the temple or something. I dunno, I hope that's not true because it seems a little cheezy but whatever lol. Nice post and thank you.

Kun was a spirit/essence bound to the Sith Temples on Yavin IV, his spirit awoke 4,000 years later when Luke opened up his Jedi Academy.

I really hope we get Yavin as a planet and exar kun as a flashpoint!!!!

Exar Kun is written in Massassi in one of the newest operations on a wall or something like that.

Where'd you hear that?

Heard it too, trying to find the picture.

Where'd you hear that?

 

Heard it too, trying to find the picture.

My friend told me, i don't do the operations so he screenshotted it for me asking what it said.

My friend told me, i don't do the operations so he screenshotted it for me asking what it said.

Ahh, Ok. I'm pretty sure it's dread palace, I'll look through it and try screenie it.

Edited and enhanced with greater information, I also attempted to make it easier to read.

I also greatly expanded on his abilities as a mere Sith spirit.

I have a question about this general era. During this time we have the Cathar couple (the couple with the male who joins Kun & gave him the scar and the female who hunts Qel-Droma later) and Sunrider, before she is trained by Thon, is married and has a child. Sunrider's husband is a Jedi and is not expelled or anything as we all know the marriage rules from the movie era. The Revan novel makes it seem as if Revan's marriage is an exception to the rule but I clearly find examples of Jedi, love/marriage, etc from Tales of the Jedi. Was this a mistake of the Revan novel or is there some in-universe explanation on how their views or romantic love interest/marriage/families change over time?

Pretty sure the Jedi Order had a revision of it's rules after the Great Sith War, can't remember the specifics though.

Pretty sure the Jedi Order had a revision of it's rules after the Great Sith War, can't remember the specifics though.

Thanks. That was my guess but wasn't sure as it's a 40 year time span and (40yrs) / (Jedi Order's Existence) is a small number and didn't know if they could make a drastic change so quickly. I'm pretty much just thinking out loud with that last sentence as to the reasons of my uncertainty not questioning your reply, thanks again!

Pretty sure the Jedi Order had a revision of it's rules after the Great Sith War, can't remember the specifics though.

If we're talking about the marriage thing, it was more the councilors than the order.