Sith battlelord The Sith battlelords , also known as Battlelords , were a class of warrior who served the Sith Lord Darth Rivan during the New Sith Wars . Sith battlelords were leaders within Rivan ' s armies and , through a series of complex rituals involving the application of Sith magic , were bonded to the troops they commanded via the Force . The use of Sith battlelords reduced desertion rates within the Sith armies and , for a time , seemed likely to turn the tide of the New Sith Wars in the favor of the Sith . However , Rivan ' s battlelord forces were annihilated by a Force storm generated by an artifact known as the Darkstaff , and the Sith ultimately abandoned the practice of creating battlelords . Over time , the precise details of how to create Sith battlelords was lost , and , during the Clone Wars , the slaver Phylus Mon and the Dark Jedi Karae Nalvas sought to rediscover the knowledge of battlelord creation . The pair traveled to Rivan ' s fortress on the planet Almas and discovered a secret chamber within the facility , where they found a tome that detailed the stages of the battlelord rituals . However , their attempts at carrying out the rituals were unsuccessful . Organization and creation . Sith battlelords were a class of warriors who served within the armies of the Sith Lord Darth Rivan during the time of the New Sith Wars , a millennium - long conflict that began in 2000 BBY and was fought between the Galactic Republic and the resurgent Sith . Chosen from the ranks of Rivan ' s forces , battlelords served as the leaders of Sith regiments that were deployed against members of the Jedi Order . Individuals chosen to become Sith battlelords would undergo a series of complex rituals that bonded them to their troops via the Force . The rituals took place at sites strong in the dark side of the Force and , according to most reports , would take place within an altar room inside a temple . The rituals drew upon the dark side and used Sith magic , inflicting pain upon the prospective battlelord and bringing the being to the verge of death . Some did not survive the ceremony . According to the Jedi publication " Speculations on Tactics of the Sith " , some people claimed that aspiring battlelords were drained of all their blood , although the publication also noted that there was no exact consensus on how individuals were brought to a near - death condition . Following performance of the rituals , some form of interaction between the unconscious leader and their followers was required to complete the leader ' s transformation into a Sith battlelord . Followers normally paraded past the lifeless body of their leader for about an hour , walking through the leader ' s blood . The leader ' s condition had to then stabilize without an application of the Force or medical intervention , and , if the leader survived , the being was returned to full health . With the process complete , a Force bond was forged between the subordinates and their leader , which signified the leader ' s successful transformation into a Sith battlelord . History . The creation of Sith battlelords was pioneered by Darth Rivan , a Zelosian Dark Lord who ruled the Sith during the New Sith Wars from a fortress on the planet Almas . The battlelords were developed in response to high desertion rates among the Sith armies , which had reduced the coordination of the Sith military forces and posed a threat to the success of their war effort , and Rivan eventually perfected the process of Sith battlelord creation . Rivan recorded the details of the battlelord ritual inside a secret chamber in his fortess on Almas , and information on the nature of the bond between the warrior leaders and their subordinates was also detailed in inscriptions on the walls of various Sith temples . The Sith were initially startled by the effects of Sith battlelords on the battlefield , because the bonded leaders brought a much greater degree of cohesion to the Sith armies than had been expected . A Sith warrior bonded to the Sith battlelord Farh j ' Hien deserted the Sith forces and was captured by the Jedi Master Kei Loo Bross . The Jedi observed how the warrior was in pain due to his separation from j ' Hien , as a result of the Force bond between j ' Hien and the warrior . In a transcript , Bross noted how the battlelords proved to be an effective tool for the Sith . For a time , their usage threatened to turn the tide of the New Sith Wars in the favor of the Sith . However , Rivan was betrayed by his apprentice before he could build a full army of bonded leaders , and when Rivan gained possession of the Darkstaff , an ancient Sith artifact that fed on Force essence s of individuals , it created a Force storm that wiped out his entire battlelord force and transported him into the future . The Jedi soon realized that killing a battlelord released the warriors bonded to the leader , who would often then flee , so the Jedi began specifically targeting Sith battlelords . As a result , Sith battlelords no longer met their required purpose , and the Sith discontinued their usage . Over time , the precise details on how to create the warrior leaders were lost and only vague references to the battlelords came to remain in historical records . At some point , a section devoted to the subject of Sith battlelords was included in the Jedi publication " Speculations on Tactics of the Sith " . Over a thousand years later , during the time of the Clone Wars , the Human Len Markus gave the Darkstaff to the Chevin slaver Phylus Mon so that Mon could repair the artifact , which had became damaged when Markus seized it from the Cularin system asteroid belt . To carry out his task , Mon traveled to the Cularin system , where Almas was located , and planned to recover knowledge on the creation of Sith battlelords from Rivan ' s fortress . Since the Darkstaff desired the Force essences of sentient beings , Mon believed that the performance of the battlelord rituals would repair the artifact , because the Force essences of the involved individuals were manipulated by the creation rituals . In addition , Mon hoped to be able to use the techniques to bond armies of slaves to himself or others . Mon allied himself with the Dark Jedi Karae Nalvas , who also wanted to learn the secrets of Sith battlelord creation . However , the Chevin secretly planned to murder Nalvas once the Dark Jedi had became a bonded leader , to find out what would happen when such a being was killed . Mon and Nalvas entered the Almas Sith fortress and accessed the facility ' s battlelord chamber , where they discovered a tome that described how to carry out the battlelord rituals . Using their newly discovered knowledge , the pair attempted to carry out the battlelord rituals , planning to bind the slaves Gorak , Kaarror , Nalz , and Yerj , and the captured Jedi Constanten and Valiri , to Mon . However , the ceremony was unsuccessful due to the presence of the Darkstaff , and instead resulted in the Force essences of Nalvas , the slaves , and the two Jedi being ripped from their bodies . At some point after that incident , a slicer posted a log on the subject of Sith battlelords on one of the planet Cularin ' s HoloNet nodes . In the log , the slicer detailed how battlelords were created , and speculated that Rivan might have specifically constructed the Almas Sith fortress to use as a facility for testing and refining the creation of battlelords . Len Markus regained possession of the Darkstaff following Mon ' s repair attempt , and , by 19 BBY , the Darkstaff had imbued Markus with some of the powers of a Sith battlelord , creating a Force bond between Markus and his Gamorrean bodyguard Kluuus . Characteristics . Sith battlelords were tough , imposing individuals who sought to increase their own personal power by attempting to gain favor with their Sith leaders , and were willing to die in the process . They also possessed a maniacal blood - rage that drove them to push their troops to their limits . Battlelords gained thickened skin as a result of their bonding rituals , increasing their defensive capabilities . The majority of the warrior leaders were males . The battlelord rituals created a near - physical bond between the warrior leaders and their troops . Depending upon the strength of the ritual used to connect them together , bonded soldiers could go between five and fifteen kilometers from their battlelord and were compelled to do anything that their battlelord commanded , or else be left behind . Any troops who strayed too far from their Sith battlelord would experience intense abdominal pain and a throbbing headache for twelve hours , eventually dying unless they returned to close proximity of their bonded leader . Unless certain magics were undone , separation of any member from the rest of the regiment also led to intense physical pain being felt by all other members , and caused the warrior leader to have visions of his or her own destruction . As a result , bonded Sith armies dealt with deserters harshly , and captured deserters were presented to the battlelords for punishment . If bonded soldiers tried to assault the Sith battlelord to which they were linked , the attackers would become beset with pain and would eventually die . Furthermore , if warriors succeeded in drawing their battlelord master ' s blood , the battlelord would be unaffected by the damage and one of the bonded troopers would be hurt instead . In addition , if a Sith battlelord fell under attack from an opponent to which it was not bonded , the battlelord could sometimes transfer any physical wounds it received to any bonded soldiers that were located within thirty meters of the battlelord . A battlelord could also enhance its own attacks by summoning power from bonded soldiers within a thirty meter proximity , which had the effect of causing the bonded soldiers to become dazed . The death of a Sith battlelord released the warriors that were bonded to the lord . The bond between a battlelord and its followers could also be severed by an application of the light side power Force Light . Behind the scenes . The Sith battlelords were created by Morrie Mullins and were first mentioned in " A Mon Alone " , a role - playing adventure that formed part of the Living Force campaign . They later featured in the Wizards . com article " Sith Battlelords " which was also written by Mullins , and were mentioned in the role - playing scenarios " The Eye " — written by Mullins and Jae Walker — and " Echoes of the Jedi " , an adventure in the Dawn of Defiance role - playing campaign that was written by Jean - François Boivin and Abel G . Peña . " A Mon Alone " , " Sith Battlelords " , and " Echoes of the Jedi " all give differing reasons for why the Sith discontinued the use of Sith battlelords . " A Mon Alone " claims that it was because the Jedi began specifically targeting battlelords when in battle against the Sith , while " Sith Battlelords " claims that Rivan was betrayed by his apprentice before he could create an army of battlelords , and " Echoes of the Jedi " claims that Rivan ' s battlelord army was destroyed by a Force storm . This article tries to integrate the three above explanations . There is also disagreement among the sources regarding the appropriate capitalization of the Sith battlelords ' name . " A Mon Alone " refers to them as " Sith Battlelords , " while the " Sith Battlelords " article and " The Eye " refer to them as " Sith battlelords " and " Echoes of the Jedi " merely calls them " Battlelords " . This article uses the capitalization from " Sith Battlelords " and " The Eye " , as they were published after " A Mon Alone " .