Tulak Hord

"'How can you ever hope to make an appeal to someone called the Lord of Hate?' - Anonymous soldier's record, shortly before death." """"""""""Tulak Hord was one of the most powerful Sith ever to live. His powers were nearly unrivaled in both his Lightsaber prowess and mastery of the Dark Side and Dark Sorceries. He is said to have conquered hundreds of planets, raised armies of followers, and left many artifacts and writings when he died.

Early Life and History
Though many details have disappeared in the dusts of time, we can still uncover several facts about this paragon of the Sith ideals. In the Imperial Registries, some records go back quite far indeed. Little is left of records of Tulak Hord, but it does mention that he was trained from a young age in the ways of the Sith, was often accompanied by a Dashade Assassin named Khem Val whom he defeated in honorable at a young age, and who could on occasion speak on his behalf (fate unknown). The records also detail that he only ever took one apprentice, named Ortan Cela (fate unknown).

Dates of birth, age of death, and other times of note are not listed in the registries.

Upon visiting his tomb on Korriban, a particular passage stood out,

"'Tave zavus Jen' Jari Tulak Hord vyktial daug iv ... [portion missing] tave vadinti iv tave raiskingas Sith... Vyras zin hevilas vadintis kais vi tave jari iv sethi tave meistras iv voktimas patamsis... Visa kuris dzirinti jiso tamsus maskuoti tariam odai ir siuly kad jorath kente tave raiskus iv jiso alkis.' - Inscription in Tulak Hord's tomb."

"'The great Dark Lord of the Sith Tulak Hord conquered hundreds of planets, all in the name of the glorious Sith. He had other names, such as the Lord of Hate, the Master of Gathering Darkness. All who saw his black mask would tremble and beg, but none could withstand the power of his hungering wrath.' -Translation."

This passage repeats much of the myths still passed down regarding this enigmatic history. A visit to the Imperial Reclamation Service unveiled that there were discoveries in the past of lightsabers wielded and built by Tulak Hord (one such catalogued as discovered by Darth Marr). Also, there are records of many writings claiming Tulak Hord as the author, and some of those writings even allude to a holocron that contained teachings of lightsaber combat. The whereabouts of much of this is unknown, and some of the writings have become virtually undecipherable due to data decay. One Reclamation Service Technician even claimed to have a shred of the loincloth that Tulak Hord's Dashade wore into the Battle of Yn, but the author did not see this as particularly relevant.

The discovery of the Dromund system was also credited to Tulak Hord in the Imperial Library records, though no proof was offered of this.

==His Tomb ==

It is hard to deny the pure sense of fear and passion one feels when they enter the tomb of Tulak Hord. The author of this article studied the tomb down to the particles of sand, and offers several observations in regards to this Dark Lord of the Sith's resting place:

Firstly, there used to be many traps in place. Small holes in the floor, spikes broken off, hooks for wire, and several stones which resemble pressure plates still remain, despite the passage of time and mountains of dust.

Second, a few altars were constructed inside the tomb, likely for rituals and Sorceries. A few seem to have ancient mounts, likely to hold some of his relics. These altars look to have been extensively defended by traps.

Third, there are two tunnels, rather large, that have collapsed in. An entire day of digging by the author, assisted by construction droids, produced no headway in penetrating into these other parts of his Tomb. It is likely that there is nothing but rubble remaining in those sections, judging by some of the outside collapsed structure, and more than extensive looting already having occured. A few of the tunnels leading to the main chambers have had their walls fall in, showing strange patterns and drawings on the back sections of the walls, undecipherable, likely similar to some of those used for invoking rituals in ancient Sith Sorcery.

Fourth, despite the time that has elapsed since his life, the energy of the tomb is still tangible. The author will be performing a clarity ritual to see if she can obtain more insight into the nature of this energy.

==Ritual of Clarity ==

The ritual attempted was detailed in a holocron record of Sith rituals, taken from Tund from the author. She has obtained a Jedi Padawan, changed to tribal clothing, and smeared herself with the late-Padawan's blood. The ritual is one where you seek the energy of a hunter. Tulak Hord was the ultimate hunter, and his quarry would often have been Force-users, so the author deemed this an appropriate procedure.

The author armed the chamber with mines at the entrance to protect herself while the ritual was in progress. The reader need not fear though: the mines are only to disintegrate limbs of anyone who enters while the ritual is in progress, and will not harm the tomb in any way. The next two sections of audio are the journal recordings of this author, before and after the ritual.

Audio transcript. Author: Apprentice Kaviroph Valeszi, of Dark Star Society. Time: Unknown, likely early, before dawn. Location: Tomb of the Lord of Hate.

"' Have prepared the ritual with utmost care, as carefully detailed by the holocron. Prepared basin of blood from Padawan, and soaked in it until it was cold. Tribal vestments likely ruined. No matter. Drawings in place, in chalk so as not to defile the tomb. I shall lay down and close my eyes, and once I meditate, I should be able to reach out into the Force and feel whatever energies remain in this tomb. There are perhaps even visions that accompany them. All is ready. Turning off commlink in case of disturbance, and beginning ritual.' [Sounds of muted chanting in the Old Sith language follow.] "

Audio transcript. Author: Apprentice Kaviroph Valeszi, of Dark Star Society. Time: Unknown, likely afternoon. Location: Tomb of the Lord of Hate.

"' 'Awoken from ritual. Feel quite hungry, chilled, but satisfied. Once the ritual was underway, felt myself reach out to the Force, and it enveloped me. I could feel some of what remained of him, too, of Tulak Hord. His hate and passion overwhelmed me with terror, and it was quite some time before I could recover enough from it enough to go beyond this. I had brief flashes - a black mask, fields of bodies, two creatures I can likely guess as Dashade, spattered with blood and entrails, and of vast space. I had visions too of rituals, of sacrifices, of failures and successes and some spells even the Sith would deem unthinkable. Truly, I cannot express in words all of what I saw, but I feel one thing more strongly than anything else: the power of Tulak Hord. Words deny me the ability to properly express this. I was nearly lost at times from my body, and it felt like I was being hunted. Cleaning up chalk and self now.' [End of audio transcript]"

Tulak Hord's Victory
Tulak Hord achieved almost single-handedly what legions of Sith could not accomplish. Not only was he a commander as Dark Lord of the Sith, but his strength in the Force was immeasurable, his skill with a Lightsaber enough to inspire terror on its own, and his knowledge vast. I cannot know his mind, but I believe that he would have never been satisfied, so strong was his hunger. But I believe him to be victorious.

The author feels that such achievements should be aspired to, and the greatest lesson to take from Tulak Hord is his passion and neverending conquests and feats. We fight until we die, and even beyond, and there is glory in that.

The author also feels that the Lord of Hate's lost knowledge is something that will always be sorely missed by the Empire. It would be a life victory alone to uncover that once more. His knowledge went far beyond that of what the Empire currently has access to, and the author worries that slowly the ancient knowledge of Sith such as Tulak Hord will dwindle into myth, and then further into obscurity, eventually forgotten and blown away in the dust of time.