Darkstaff The Darkstaff was a powerful , sentient Sith artifact that was one of the most dangerous objects in the galaxy . The staff was created by a member of the Sith Order thousands of years before the Clone Wars and eventually came into the possession of the Sith Empire , who placed the relic into storage aboard the space station repository the Arcanum . However , around 3639 BBY the artifact was stolen from the facility by the Sith Lord Tagriss , an agent of a group of renegade Sith known as the Dread Masters . The staff was later transported to the planet Oblis , in the Cularin system , where it fell into the hands of the Oblee species . The staff began to manipulate the Oblee ; it summoned a shadow creature , a type of energy - based being that fed on emotions , to the atmosphere of Oblis , and influenced the Oblee into viewing the creature as a threat . The Oblee were determined to use the Darkstaff to power a weapon that would force the shadow creature away from their world , but when they activated the machine , the Darkstaff used the power that it absorbed to destroy Oblis . The remnants of the planet eventually settled to form the Cularin system asteroid belt , and the Darkstaff came to be located within the asteroid I - 9 . Years afterward , the Sith Lord Darth Rivan was drawn to the Cularin system by the Darkstaff ' s power , and he sought to gain control of the artifact . During a pivotal battle against the forces of the Jedi Order , Rivan gained possession of the staff and it generated a hyperspace wormhole that transported him hundreds of years into the future , to one of the battles of the Ruusan campaign . In about 31 BBY , the Force - sensitive criminal Len Markus traveled to I - 9 and seized the Darkstaff for himself . However , as Markus departed from the asteroid belt with the artifact , a kilometers - long bolt of Force lightning was fired from Darth Rivan ' s fortress on the planet Almas , which struck the Darkstaff and created a time vortex that transported the Cularin system ten years into the future . The lightning bolt damaged the staff , so Markus made a deal with the slaver Phylus Mon whereby Mon would repair the artifact . Mon took the staff back to the Cularin system , where the artifact regained some of its strength by feeding on several Force essence s that Mon had trapped inside a crystal pyramid . However , the Heroes of Cularin , a group of freelance agents that operated in the Cularin system , boarded Mon ' s starship and shattered the pyramid before the Darkstaff could fully repair itself . The Darkstaff returned to Len Markus , who aided the artifact in pursuing its new goal : the destruction of the Cularin system . The staff planned to consume the Force essence of the Eye of the Sun , a Jedi - created artifact that was concealed on the planet Cularin , then use the power that it gained from the Eye to lay waste to the system . After learning the location of the Eye , Markus took the Darkstaff to the ch ' hala Heart Tree , where the Jedi artifact was hidden . However , he was confronted by the Heroes of Cularin , and in the ensuing battle , one of the agents channeled the light side of the Force into the Darkstaff and obliterated the Sith artifact , ending the threat that the staff posed to Cularin . Description . Powers . The Darkstaff was a powerful , sentient Sith artifact that was one of the most dangerous and unpredictable objects in the galaxy . The rod was brown in colorone meter in length and four centimeters in diameter , and it was crooked at one end , with a blue shining light at the other . Though the staff was created to feed off the Force , the relic was not itself a Force - imbued object . All light that passed near the artifact was consumed by the Darkstaff , which was able to produce black , smoky tendrils that allowed it to suck the Force essence s out of living individuals and to drain energy from Force artifacts . However , the staff was unable to consume the Force essences of individuals who freely sacrificed their lives as a result of compassion and love . The staff used the energy that it absorbed to strengthen itself ; if it absorbed a large enough quantity of Force energy , it gained the power to destroy an entire planet . For protection , the staff could create an area around itself that was devoid of the Force . It could teleport itself to a different location , although it was unable to transport itself in such a manner when it was located within one kilometer of the Eye of the Sun , an artifact that was imbued with the power of the light side of the Force . The staff was immune to the effects of all Force powers and to all forms of energy damage , including lightsaber attacks . The staff was able to possess the minds of individuals , which allowed it to use people as vessels through which it could communicate , speaking with a dark , rough - sounding voice . It could control non - sentient creatures , although animals could be released from the Darkstaff ' s influence by an application of the power Force Light . Furthermore , the staff had the ability to transform creatures into Sithspawn , dark side – influenced mutant s , and could be used to animate corpses , to create dark side – using zombies . Cadavers that were exposed to the Darkstaff for extended periods of time were sometimes mutated by the staff ' s power in a manner that caused them to be strengthened , rather than weakened , when attacked with energy - based weapons . As a result of an effect designed by the Darkstaff to interfere with the concentration of those around it , beings in the presence of the artifact felt an uncomfortable sensation , as if the air around them were thick , oil y , and unpleasant . However , individuals could prevent the staff from affecting them in such a manner by entering a Force - induced trance . The staff had the power to drive those around it into insanity , and could prevent people whom it wounded from using the Force to heal themselves . The staff could imbue those who wielded it with some of the powers of the Sith battlelord s , warrior leaders who were connected via the Force to the troops that they commanded . These properties allowed those whom the staff imbued in such a manner to bond themselves via the Force to other individuals , with any wounds inflicted onto the staff bearer being transferred to the bonded individuals , which rendered the staff bearer invulnerable to all attacks while the bonded individuals were still alive . In addition , the artifact ' s powers prevented anyone who wielded it from being disarmed during combat , and it could also enshroud its bearer in a cloak of shadows that concealed their appearance . In some circumstances , use of the Darkstaff by a Force - sensitive individual resulted in the staff bearer being rendered unable to connect to the Force . Interaction between the Darkstaff and large amounts of dark side energy sometimes could generate a time vortex capable of causing an entire star system to disappear and travel into the future . As a side effect of such a vortex , shifts in the galaxy ' s time stream occurred , causing some of the individuals affected by the vortex to develop timeshadow s , versions of themselves that existed in an alternate timeline . The Darkstaff could be used to generate a Force storm that was capable of creating a hyperspace wormhole and transporting an individual across time and space to a different location . The staff had the power to alter the area around itself , and if it had access to sufficient amounts of energy , it could remake the part of the galaxy nearest itself into a larger version of the staff . When on a planetary body , the staff could alter the surrounding environment , by infusing the dark side into the area around itself . Byproducts of the Darkstaff ' s effects sometimes caused the light and dark sides of the Force to struggle against each other in the area adjacent to the staff , which generated a disturbance in the Force and prevented large pieces of technology from working when within the affected area . Personality . The Darkstaff thrived on the suffering of others , and its primary aim was to cause destruction wherever it went . It was ambitious and it wished to gain power , to end lives , to consume energy and in particular , it desired to consume the Force . The staff was deceitful , and it used others to achieve its own ends , preferring to be viewed by those around it as an object of desire that they wanted to use . To achieve that , the artifact played on people ' s emotions by appealing to their senses of greed and ambition . The Darkstaff always ensured that it was discovered only by those by whom it wished to be found , and when someone wielded it , the staff aimed to warp the mind of its user and used its powers to make it extremely difficult for the artifact to be taken from its owner . The staff tried to keep itself at a safe distance from those who wished to destroy it . Viewing itself as powerful , the Darkstaff believed that it had the right to choose when to end the lives of sentient beings , considering it acceptable for the strong to make decisions for the weak , because it judged that some beings were never destined to be anything other than slaves . When communicating with sentient beings , the Darkstaff did not like to be interrupted and became angered if someone spoke over it . The Darkstaff did not think of itself as being insane , because it thought that insanity was merely a word invented by weak individuals to explain why the strong held power over them . The staff was unable to comprehend the concepts of compassion and self - sacrifice . History . Agent of destruction . The Darkstaff was created several thousand years before the Clone Wars , by a member of the Sith Order . The staff ' s creator regretted making the artifact and the Sith Lord Darth Rivan later speculated that the staff was the result of an experiment that had gone wrong . However , the Darkstaff ' s creator was eventually killed by the artifact before having a chance to unmake the staff , and the Darkstaff subsequently lay dormant for many years . The Darkstaff went on to destroy entire worlds and kill millions of people . The artifact was eventually recovered by the Sith Empire , who deemed the staff dangerous but too powerful to destroy , so it was placed into storage within the Arcanum , a space station commissioned by the Sith Emperor as a vast storehouse for holding similarly dangerous and powerful artifacts . The staff was cataloged within the repository under ID number 426 - 609 - 19752 and contained within a reliquary in the Arcanum ' s Specimen Storage Complex , and a warning message on a plaque next to the reliquary directed that the artifact was not to be interacted with , either physically or mentally . Around 3639 BBY , the Darkstaff was liberated from the Arcanum when the Sith Lord Tagriss raided the facility on the behalf of the Dread Masters , a group of powerful Sith who had split from the Sith Empire . Penetrating the Arcanum ' s Specimen Storage Complex , Tagriss found the Darkstaff and removed it from its reliquary , but was pursued by operatives loyal to either the Empire or the Galactic Republic . With the artifact in his hand , Tagriss ascended to the complex ' s upper levels and used the Darkstaff to free the Dashade Shadow Killer Akriss Veng in order to stall the agents while he fled the station with the relic . Tagriss took the Darkstaff to the Dread Guard Sanctum on Belsavis . The operatives loyal to either the Empire or the Republic traced Tagriss to Belsavis , and when they entered the Sanctum , they encountered Dread Guardsman Varrow , who used the Darkstaff to fight them . While the Darkstaff granted him immunity from many attacks and other powers — the ability to animate stone statues and to resurrect long - dead Sith from the sarcophagi in the chamber — he was unable to control the power of the Darkstaff ; midway through the battle it turned on him and drained him of life . After Varrow ' s death , the Darkstaff vanished into thin air with a fiery explosion . Sometime afterward , the Darkstaff fell into the possession of a wandering trader , who transported the relic to the planet Oblis in the Cularin system . There , it passed into the hands of the Oblee , the planet ' s native sentient species . The staff was studied by the scientist - philosopher s , the ruling Oblee caste , who recognized that the artifact possessed great power . The Darkstaff planned to destroy Oblis , so it began to manipulate the Oblee , using its energy - draining abilities to draw a shadow creature — a type of energy - based being that fed on emotions — to Oblis . The shadow creature settled into the orbit of Oblis and began to meld itself into the atmosphere of the world , growing in size . As a result of the staff ' s influence , the Oblee began to view the shadow creature as a threat , and the scientist - philosophers planned to use the Darkstaff to power a weapon that would allow them to send the shadow creature away from their world . The Priests of Nether , an Oblee religious sect , suspected that the Darkstaff was manipulating the Oblee , but despite their concerns , work on the construction of the weapon went ahead . To power their machine , the scientist - philosophers created three focusing crystals and placed them at strategic locations around Oblis ; the Oblee all channeled their hopes and fears into the crystals . The species situated their weapon inside a great hall on top of a mountain ; there , a scientist - philosopher inserted the Darkstaff and one of the focusing crystals into a covered tray at the side of the machine , then activated the device . The Darkstaff immediately absorbed energy from the three crystals and created a blue - colored energy beam that burst through the ceiling of the hall and struck the shadow creature , hurling the being away from the system . However , the Darkstaff triggered a chain reaction that caused Oblis to explode seconds later . The Darkstaff and the focusing crystals were left unharmed by the cataclysm , while the Oblee were transformed into incorporeal beings that became known as " shadow lurkers , " trapped in a shadowy realm that was created when the staff destroyed their world . The Darkstaff continued to draw power from the shadow lurkers via the three focusing crystals , which forced the lurkers to take in energy from anything that they could reach in order to prevent themselves from being completely absorbed by the artifact . The remains of Oblis formed into the Cularin system asteroid belt , and the Darkstaff eventually came to be located within a chamber inside the asteroid I - 9 . The shadow lurkers made it their mission to hide the Darkstaff away , to protect the galaxy from the artifact , so they put in place six shadowy entrances to the chamber containing the staff , only one of which led to the staff itself . As a further defense , the disembodied Oblee installed incorporeal guardians inside the staff ' s chamber , which were tasked with challenging anyone who attempted to take the staff . At some point , a creature entered the staff ' s chamber and had its life sucked out by the Darkstaff , and over time the long exposure of the creature ' s remains to the Darkstaff mutated them , so that they became stronger when hit by energy weapons . The dark side of the Force sought to destroy the Darkstaff and began gathering on I - 9 , so the staff created a void in the Force around itself as a defense . Unable to enter the staff ' s chamber , the dark side built up its strength and waited outside the room for years , biding its time . Bane of Darth Rivan . At some point between 1417 BBY and 1167 BBY , during the New Sith Wars , the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Rivan learned of the existence of the Darkstaff . The Sith Lord desired the artifact and was drawn to the Cularin system by the Darkstaff ' s power , going so far as to construct a fortress on Almas , the system ' s fifth planet . However , Rivan soon learned that the staff had the power to destroy him , and he became determined to nullify the artifact and eliminate the threat that it posed . However , he refused to directly search for the staff , because he believed that it planned to use him to help it leave the sector and that its release would cause great damage to the galaxy . The Sith Lord experienced dreams in which he utilized the Darkstaff for his own ends and to suck the Force out of his enemies , but he chose not to act upon these visions , believing that they were caused by the Darkstaff itself . Instead , he recorded his thoughts on the nature of the object in his personal journals and worked with a holocron to search for information that would allow him to better understand the staff . During a pivotal battle in the Cularin system against forces led by members of the Jedi Order , Rivan finally gained possession of the Darkstaff . However , the artifact created a Force storm , which generated a hyperspace wormhole and eliminated Rivan ' s army of Sith battlelords . Caught in the eye of the storm , Rivan was transported hundreds of years into the future to one of the battles of the Ruusan campaign , a series of engagements that were fought on the planet Ruusan at the end of the New Sith Wars . The effects of the Darkstaff left Rivan bereft of the Force ; in his weakened state , he was slain during the battle . The Darkstaff itself remained in the Cularin system , and at the same time the Ruusan campaign was being fought , a group of Jedi Masters created a Force - imbued artifact known as the Eye of the Sun on the planet Cularin . The Eye had the power to shield Force users from detection . Such properties concealed the Darkstaff , preventing the Sith artifact from being sensed from outside the Cularin system . It acted as a light side counterpoint to the Darkstaff , preventing the staff from sucking the life from all living things in the Cularin system . The Jedi Order eventually recorded everything that they could ascertain about the Darkstaff in the Jedi Archives , but they knew little about the history and location of the artifact . Rediscovery . Nearly a thousand years after the Ruusan campaign , during the waning years of the Galactic Republic , the Force - sensitive criminal Len Markus stumbled across a record that made reference to the Darkstaff , and he became determined to locate the artifact . Markus followed a trail of evidence that allowed him to track the staff to the Cularin system , but once there , he was unable to pinpoint the artifact ' s exact location . He settled in the system , became an associate of the Oblee crime lord Nirama , and spent several years fruitlessly searching for the Darkstaff . Markus ' fortunes changed when he came into contact with the renowned information broker Sot - sirc , who traveled to the Cularin system and helped Markus research the artifact . Over a period of several months , Markus studied inscriptions located in the Cularin system asteroid belt , and circa 31 BBY , he deduced that the artifact was located on I - 9 . However , Markus ' research was flawed as a result of errors in his translation of the inscriptions , which gave him the impression that the Darkstaff granted its wielder the power to affect the minds of other individuals , even those with a natural resistance to such Force - based influences ; in fact the inscriptions actually referred to the staff ' s ability to warp and destroy the minds of those around it . Markus planned to retrieve the Darkstaff from the asteroid belt and then to use it to supplant Nirama ' s control of organized crime in the Cularin system . Markus covertly set out for I - 9 , and he summoned a number of members of the Red Fury Brotherhood , a local pirate group , to meet him on the asteroid and assist him in his search . On arrival , the pirates soon were driven insane by the power of the Darkstaff , but Markus was able to make his way into the heart of the asteroid . There , he seized the artifact , which allowed itself to be taken by him . However , Nirama suspected that Markus was plotting to betray him , so the crime lord hired the Heroes of Cularin , a group of freelance agents who operated in the Cularin system , to find Markus . The agents tracked Markus to I - 9 , and they arrived on the asteroid shortly after the Force - sensitive had taken the Darkstaff . Markus boarded his personal starship with the artifact and contacted the freelancers via a holoprojection , showing them the Darkstaff , while taunting them and claiming that his possession of the artifact made him the most powerful person in the universe . Shortly afterward , Markus departed the asteroid field and flew his starship toward Almas . However , the dark side of Force still wanted to destroy the staff ; in an attempt to obliterate the artifact , it fired a burst of dark side energy out of Darth Rivan ' s fortress on Almas , generating a kilometers - long bolt of Force lightning that emerged from the fortress and struck the Darkstaff . The bolt cracked the Darkstaff , weakening the Sith artifact , and the interaction between the staff and the dark side energy created a time vortex that engulfed the entire Cularin system . The event forced the system to disappear and to transport ten years into the future to about 21 BBY . The upheaval destroyed Markus ' starship and removed Markus and the Darkstaff from the Cularin system . The Darkstaff possessed Markus . Under its influence , he rose through the ranks of the Believers — a Sith cult that Markus had founded in the Cularin system many years earlier — and eventually became their leader . At some point after the Cularin system ' s re - emergence , the Heroes of Cularin prevented the Believers from dispersing a deadly virus on the planet Caarimon , and a celebration was held on Dorumaa , the moon of Almas , to commend the agents ' actions . During the festivities , a fallacious rumor circulated among attendees that a member of the Tarasin , a sentient species that lived on Cularin , had discovered the Darkstaff and was planning to use it to kill all of Cularin ' s non - Tarasin residents . Around the same time , a team of Jedi researchers discovered some of Darth Rivan ' s journals inside the Sith fortress on Almas and published on the HoloNet a section of the tomes that detailed Rivan ' s thoughts on the Darkstaff . The Heroes of Cularin eventually returned to the Cularin system asteroid belt and interacted with the shadow lurkers . The lurkers feared that their spirits would soon be fully absorbed by the Darkstaff , and that once they were gone , the focusing crystals installed by the scientist - philosophers would funnel the Force essences of all life in the asteroid belt into the Darkstaff . Thus the phantom Oblee urged the agents to destroy the three focusing crystals . Via its connection to the shadow lurkers , the Darkstaff learned of the freelance operatives ' plans and urged Len Markus to take action to protect the crystals . At the staff ' s behest , Markus dispatched a group of Believers to go to the asteroid belt and stop the operatives from destroying the crystals . However , the Heroes of Cularin defeated the Believers and shattered the focusing crystals , which destroyed the Darkstaff ' s connection to the shadow lurkers and caused the Oblee to be resurrected to their physical form . Phylus Mon ' s repair attempt . To repair the damage that was inflicted on the Darkstaff when it was struck by the bolt of Force lightning from the Sith fortress , in around 20 BBY Markus made a deal with the Chevin slaver Phylus Mon . Markus granted Mon access to the Almas fortress , and the slaver planned to travel to the Sith stronghold and search for the secrets of the creation of Sith battlelords , then use the battlelord rituals to manipulate the Force essences of some living beings to allow the Darkstaff to feed off the essences and use them to regain its strength . Markus gave the staff to Mon , and the Chevin traveled with it to the Cularin system aboard the " Animiasma " , his personal starship . Accompanied by a group of his slave servants and his ally , the Human Dark Jedi Karae Nalvas , Mon overcame the Sith fortress ' Jedi guards and headed into the depths of the facility . The spirit of Darth Rivan ' s apprentice Darsin was angered by Mon ' s possession of the Darkstaff and harried the slaver ' s entourage , but Mon used the staff to ward the spirit away . After discovering a tome that detailed the steps involved in the creation of Sith battlelords , Mon placed the Darkstaff on a stone altar and performed the battlelord rituals , attempting to bind four of his slaves and two captive Jedi to himself and Nalvas via the Force . However , the ritual was unsuccessful due to the Darkstaff ' s presence ; instead , the staff melted the altar and caused the Force essences of Nalvas , the slaves , and the Jedi to be ripped from their bodies and transferred into a large crystal pyramid . The Darkstaff then began to feed from the Force essences trapped inside the crystal and used them to strengthen itself . Mon and his slaves returned to the " Animiasma " with the Darkstaff and the crystal , and he hid the ship deep inside the Cularin system ' s asteroid belt . As the staff increased in strength , it slowly began taking over the area around the vessel , draining energy from a cylindrical region surrounding the ship that gradually began to be transformed into a larger version of the artifact . In a move that the staff had not predicted , the Heroes of Cularin and the Jedi Oden Malksch boarded the " Animiasma " , seeking to destroy the Darkstaff and free the Force essences that were trapped inside the crystal pyramid . To delay the agents from reaching the part of the ship in which the staff was located , the artifact manipulated the ship ' s environment and crew to lure the freelancers into entering a part of the vessel that contained Phylus Mon ' s private zoo , a collection of unusual sentient beings that the slaver had captured . As the agents progressed through the zoo , the staff made a further attempt to neutralize the threat they posed to it by possessing the Human Alianda , a slave of Phylus Mon . Through her it spoke with the freelance agents , offering to give them anything that they desired if they relented their assault and vowing to destroy them if they did not cease their attack . The Darkstaff then withdrew itself from Alianda , teleported away from the " Animiasma " , and continued to draw strength from the trapped Force essences . Phylus Mon frantically searched for the artifact but was accosted by the Heroes of Cularin . The agents destroyed the pyramid and freed the Force essences contained within it , which prevented the Darkstaff from using the essences to fully repair itself . Showdown at the Heart Tree . Len Markus re - gained possession of the staff , and in about 19 BBY , he returned to the Cularin system with it . By that time , Markus had been driven insane by the staff , but he still had delusions that he was in control of the artifact , and he moved around as if in a dream , doing the staff ' s bidding and moving closer to the artifact ' s new goal : the destruction of the Cularin system . To achieve that end , the Darkstaff planned to locate the Eye of the Sun and consume the Jedi - created artifact ' s Force essence , the power of which would make the staff the most powerful object in the galaxy . The staff could then use the energy it had taken from the Eye to cause the planet Cularin to explode , with the detonation hurling the system ' s other planetary bodies into Cularin ' s two suns and causing the Darkstaff to spin out into space to wait to be rediscovered again . The artifact did not share with Markus the full extent of its plans and instead , it led him to believe that it wished to use the power of the Eye of the Sun to suck out the Force essences of all life on Cularin . The Darkstaff imbued Markus with some of the powers of a Sith battlelord , allowing a Force bond to be created between Markus and his Gamorrean servant Kluuus . Shortly after his return to the system , Markus met with a group of Believers while holding the staff , and he tasked the cultists with attacking a conference on Cularin that was to be attended by the system ' s leaders . Later , the staff was used by an enshrouded being in a raid on the Five Masters Academy , a martial arts school on Cularin that was affiliated with the Wookiee Liberation Front . Using the staff to project a cloak of shadow around itself , the assailant attacked the Academy ' s students and instructors , and the staff massacred them by draining their life forces . Soon , only the Master in Violet , a Zabrak adept of the martial art K ' thri , was left alive , and she used a songsteel staff to parry her assailant ' s attempts to strike her with the Sith artifact . However , Barnab Chistor , a pupil of the Academy who had been absent during the early stages of the incursion , ambushed the shadowy being and fired an experimental weapon at it . Wounded , the assailant was forced to retreat , and it used the Darkstaff to resurrect the corpses of the deceased students and set them upon Chistor and the Master in Violet . Suspecting the return of Markus and the Darkstaff , Nirama searched for a way to destroy the Sith artifact . He discovered that the Twi ' lek academic Klide was close to discovering the location of the Eye of the Sun , and the Oblee came to believe that the Eye could be used to vanquish the staff . Nirama lacked the capacity to take action against the artifact on his own , so he hid himself in his former base , inside the Cularin system asteroid belt , and sent out a message to the Heroes of Cularin requesting that they come to Red Sector to help him strike against the staff . However , Len Markus intercepted the transmissions and headed for Red Sector with the Darkstaff and a team of mercenaries . He captured Nirama and communicated with the Heroes of Cularin via a holographic transmission , the agents having traveled to the base in response to Nirama ' s summons . During the conversation , the staff caused Markus to openly flaunt his insanity , as a demonstration to the agents of the extent to which it controlled the man . After stealing the coordinates of the Eye of the Sun from Klide , Markus journeyed into the jungles of Cularin with the Darkstaff and some mercenaries to the Eye ' s hiding place near the Heart Tree , a large plant that was at the center of an interconnected network of ch ' hala tree s that grew all across Cularin . En route , the staff made Markus use the artifact to transform a group of Mulissiki , local non - sentient reptilian scavengers , into Sithspawn , granting them the ability to shoot acid or lightning from their mouths so as to kill or weaken anyone who pursued Markus . The Force Adept s San Herrera and Nia Reston sighted Markus and trailed him , hoping to capture him to protect Cularin from his deprivations . However , Markus attacked them and used the Darkstaff to suck out their Force essences and transform their mummified corpses into dark side – wielding zombies , which he left behind to attack any pursuers who made it past the mutated Mulissiki . On arrival at the Heart Tree , the Darkstaff sensed the Eye of the Sun ' s presence , and Markus ordered his mercenaries to start digging around the tree to search for the Jedi artifact . The Darkstaff twisted the jungle surrounding the tree by infusing it with the dark side of the Force , hoping to overwhelm the tree and stop it from shielding the Eye ' s location . The artifact ' s exertions caused a disturbance in the Force in the surrounding region , an anomaly that made the air crackle and prevented large pieces of technology from working near to the tree . The Heroes of Cularin traveled to the Heart Tree and confronted Markus , aiming to thwart the Darkstaff ' s plot . Markus immediately used the staff to summon twelve Kilassin , large , non - sentient lizards that were native to Cularin , to fight for him , then engaged the freelance operatives in combat . Feeling petulant , the staff decided to deny Markus the ability to use the Force to heal himself during the fight . Markus used the Darkstaff to deflect the operatives ' attacks , and he attempted to use the artifact to drain their Force essences . However , the agents defeated Markus ' mercenaries , and the Heart Tree summoned a gigantic Kilassin to aid Markus ' opponents , countering the imbalance that had been created when the Darkstaff had summoned the lesser Kilassin . At the battle ' s climax , one of the freelancers volunteered to be struck by the Darkstaff , which allowed the individual to channel the light side of the Force into the artifact and attempt to nullify the staff . The Darkstaff panicked and ordered Markus to get it away from the agent . Markus did his best to break the individual ' s hold on the artifact but failed ; through the agent ' s willful self - sacrifice , the Darkstaff was obliterated . As the artifact was destroyed , the jungle around the Heart Tree shook , and a loud cracking sound ripped through the air , while the agent became one with the Force , the individual ' s body disappearing to leave behind only clothes and equipment . The artifact ' s demise permanently severed Markus from the Force and the hand in which he had been clutching the staff was reduced to a mass of blackened flesh . The leaders of some nearby Tarasin tribal groups sensed the staff ' s destruction through the Force and held a celebration next to the Heart Tree to celebrate the artifact ' s demise . However , the Tarasin Dariana suspected that the annihilation of the staff would bring unwanted attention to Cularin , so she began making plans to hide away the children of her species . Behind the scenes . The Darkstaff was created by Morrie Mullins and Christina Nichols in 2002 for " Philology " , the third adventure in the Below the Belt trilogy of the " Living Force " campaign , a supplement to the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Roleplaying Game . In " Philology " , the staff caused the Cularin system to disappear for ten years , serving as a plot element that allowed the setting of " Living Force " campaign to be moved from the time period of the film to the time period of the film . The fates of Len Markus and the Darkstaff went on to become a recurring theme in the campaign , and the artifact ' s origins and history were further developed in 2003 , in the " Living Force " module " Recursion " and the Wizards . com article " The Darkstaff " . In 2006 , the staff appeared in " The Hand " and " The Eye " , by Morrie Mullins and Jae Walker , the last two adventures in the " Living Force " campaign , which portrayed the Darkstaff ' s fate . The staff later received an entry in the 2008 compendium " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , and it was mentioned in the 2009 sourcebook " The Clone Wars Campaign Guide " . The staff later went on to appear in the 2013 game , an expansion pack to the " Star Wars : The Old Republic " which became the first source to provide a visual depiction of the artifact . Sources are inconsistent with regard to the capitalization of the term " Darkstaff " ; some such as " Philology " , " Recursion " and " The Eye " , spell it " darkstaff , " while others , such as " No Place Like Home " , " Echoes of the Jedi " and " " spell it " Darkstaff . " As both " The Complete Star Wars Encylopedia " and " The Clone Wars Campaign Guide " , the two most recently published sources in which the staff is mentioned , both spell its name as " Darkstaff , " this article assumes that that is the correct capitalization of the term . There are a number of inconsistencies regarding the Darkstaff in " The Eye " , one of which relates to a passage of the adventure that recounts some events from " Philology " in which a skeletal creature was reanimated on the asteroid I - 9 . " Philology " states that there was only one such creature and that , while the creature had been infused by the power of the Darkstaff , the creature ' s remains were reanimated by spirits put in place by the shadow lurkers , not by the staff . However , " The Eye " mistakenly states that in " Philology " the player characters encountered multiple skeletal creatures and that the creatures were re - animated by the Darkstaff itself . Due to the fact that " The Eye " retells the events from an out - of - universe perspective , recapping what happened to the player characters during " Philology " , this article therefore assumes that the events as described in " The Eye " are in error . " The Eye " includes another discrepancy , in relation to the Eye of the Sun . The adventure states that the Eye of the Sun was created concurrently with the Battle of Ruusan and completed two years after the battle , and that when Darth Rivan first arrived in the Cularin system , he was able to sense the Darkstaff through the Eye ' s shielding effect . However , it had previously been established in the Wizards . com article " The Sith Fortress " that Rivan had died during the Battle of Ruusan , a fact that was confirmed in the roleplaying adventure " Echoes of the Jedi " . Therefore , Rivan must have arrived in the Cularin system before the Battle of Ruusan and before the creation of the Eye , so this article assumes that the Eye of the Sun was not shielding the Darkstaff at the time of Rivan ' s arrival . A third inconsistency in " The Eye " relates to the diameter of the Darkstaff ; while the article " The Darkstaff " established that the staff was 4 cm in diameter , " The Eye " claims that the staff has a diameter of 6 cm . The entry for the Darkstaff " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " supports the former measurement , so this article assumes that the staff was 4 cm in diameter . The appearance of the staff in " Star Wars : The Old Republic : Rise of the Hutt Cartel " introduced an additional discrepancy regarding the staff ' s color . Whereas the artifact is consistently described within the " Living Force " campaign as being black in color the game depicts the staff as being brown - colored . This article describes the staff as it is portrayed in " Star Wars : The Old Republic " . Possible outcomes . The players of the " Living Force " campaign roleplay as the Heroes of Cularin , and during the adventures in which the Darkstaff appears , their choices can influence the actions of the staff . In " Philology " , the species of the skeletal creature that has been infused by the power of the Darkstaff varies depending upon the roleplaying experience tier of the player characters ; for characters in the lower tier , the creature is a massiff , for player characters in the medium experience tier , the creature is a nexu , and for players in the upper tier , the creature is a gundark . Due to these different possibilities , the " History " section of this article does not specify the exact variety of creature that the staff empowered . In the adventure " Recursion " , the player characters have a number of choices regarding what they do with the focusing crystals that link the disembodied Oblee to the Darkstaff . The players can opt to call upon the dark side and use the Force to allow the staff to absorb the spirits of the Oblee ; alternatively , they can either allow the Oblee to transform into the Force or be resurrected into their physical form , severing the Oblee ' s connection to the Darkstaff . However , the Wizards . com article " The Oblee " confirms that the spirits of the Oblee were given physical form by players , thus making that the canon ical outcome . During " A Mon Alone " , when the Darkstaff speaks to the Heroes of Cularin through the possessed slave Alianda , the staff offers to give any character that leaves the " Animiasma " their heart ' s desire . If a player attempts to comply with the staff ' s request , the Darkstaff does not fulfill its promise and instead incapacitates the individual . The adventure advises that the gamemaster , the person directing the roleplaying adventure , portray the staff with a voice similar to that of James Earl Jones , the actor who voiced the character Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy . In " The Eye " , when the player characters confront Len Markus at the Heart Tree , it is possible for Markus to attempt to use the staff to turn the giant Kilassin into Sithspawn , although if he tries this , he does not succeed . It is possible for the staff to drain the life out of some of the player characters . Either one or several of the player characters then destroy the Darkstaff by channeling the light side of the Force into the artifact , and if Len Markus is still alive when the artifact is vanquished , the staff ' s destruction causes him to be permanently cut off from the Force .