Darth Thorn

* Darth Thorn
* Varon Startreader

**Darth Thorn**, real name **Varon Startreader**, was a Jedi Knight of the New Republic, later turned Dark Lord of the Sith. Considered a maximum level threat by the Galactic Order, Darth Thorn was one of the most dangerous and powerful Sith Lords, a pure warrior who advanced himself in combat and saw other means as cowardice.

Varon was born in the underworld of Coruscant and had to work with criminal groups to survive along with his brother, but this led to their arrest at a young age. Upon being released, Varon was taken as a Jedi apprentice by Pite Tverlo who sensed his potential in the Force. Varon became one of the most valuable Jedi Knights of Skywalker's Academy.

Things changed for the worse upon Surect's reign of terror. Seeing too many losses and how fellow Jedi weren't quick to act, Varon gave up everything by disguising as an Inquisitor to reach close to Surect and assassinate him. This plan failed and the amused Surect brought him to his secret master, Dreackil. Varon was a unique case for Dreackil as no matter what he tried, he could not convert him to an ally, despite Varon had already fallen to the dark side. For years Dreackil tortured and toyed with Varon until his defeat in 20 ABY.

Varon was left free to roam the galaxy, but with a new cynical view, his close friends and loved ones were all dead and the factions he once fought for were long gone and it seemed to him as if all his work was for nothing. Varon over time grew to accept the Sith philosophy, believing that it was correct, even though many Sith were despicable.

During the Cold War, Varon found himself the case of several bounties and enslavement as he was marked as a Sith. Meeting Dust Plitt, who held Varon at gunpoint, Varon set off on a search to find the artifacts. He was ditched by Dust and found himself in alliance a Fallen Jedi named Kenara and a rogue AK-50 droid. Eventually however, Kenara betrayed Varon, revealing her intentions as much more sinister. With the help of Dust and AK-50, Varon bested Kenara in combat despite her using the gauntlet artifact and killed her. In that moment Varon chose his Sith title: Darth Thorn.

Darth Thorn later made an alliance with the owner of Twin Sun Collective, Toan Neestarc and helped lead a crusade against other criminal factions in Tatooine, effectively securing the planet under Twin Sun. Darth Thorn, with Dust and AK-50 as his close allies, worked as the secret enforcers of Twin Sun for the next 7 years. In the meantime Darth Thorn also hunted for other artifacts like the gauntlet he secured.

In 30 ABY, Thorn met Shruk and they made a temporary alliance to collect the artifacts, later joined by Luke Valkoroven, a student Thorn knew from the Jedi Academy, and Toren Akora. The 4 went up against Drengus' forces who were also trying to collect artifacts to restore the Force. There were many squabbles between the group as they could hardly contain their trust between each other, especially to Darth Thorn. Though Thorn attempted to make apprentices out of Shruk and Toren, instructing them in the usage of artifacts without losing control, as well as the Force, but this did not prove fruitful. Darth Thorn would make allies of Mandalorians with Jake Dosh and the wookiees of Kashyyyk and lead them to invade Yavin IV, leading to a climactic confrontation between his, Drengus' and the Federations forces. Darth Thorn defeated Drengus in a climactic battle aboard his cruiser with the help of Balblo Kentowi and Valkoroven, executing him. Later, against the rest of the crews wishes, Darth Thorn tricked Balblo into restoring the Force. Since Shruk contacted them in advance, later the Galactic Order would also invade, defeating what was left of Drengus' and Federation's army and forcing the Mandalorian-wookiee fleet to resign, though they could not act against them without making unnecessary enemies as there was no proof of Thorn's involvement.

In the aftermath, as Darth Thorn was revealed to the Galactic Order, a 3 million bounty was put on him and he was labelled a maximum level threat, making him the most wanted man in the galaxy. However, Darth Thorn continued to make further allies with Jake Dosh, J'sse H'ctor, Miray Cense, Lucian and Aal-May.

## History

### Early life

Born as Varon Startreader in Coruscant, Varon and his brother Drent had a rough childhood, having to look after each other and operating in the underworld to survive. The two joined an underworld criminal gang which was later busted in 2 BBY by Stormtroopers. The two young Kel Dors were spared and thrown into prison. After the Imperial era ended, the two were broken out during the Coruscant raid however the group that the two worked with didn't see any help or recognition for their more unorthodox approach, making the Startreaders develop antipathy toward the New Republic. The two split apart as Drent wanted to continue working in the underworld while Varon developed Force-sensitivity and was picked up by Pite Tverlo for Jedi training. Pite and Varon were one of the first members of Luke's Jedi Academy. With his quick learning and great skill, Varon became one of the greatest Jedi Knights of his time.

### Jedi Knight of the New Republic

With Desann's Imperial reign, despite being victorious, things went dire for the Jedi as they were losing more students than they had hoped for. When Surect's Imperial occupation started, Varon devised a plan with his master to infiltrate the Imperial ranks disguised and assassinate their current leader, Darth Surect. Varon dressed up in the armor of an Inquisitor he had killed. However the plan failed and the Jedi was caught. He was brought to Dreackil and imprisoned under him for years to come. Dreackil found interest in Varon as he had already turned to the dark side like many but he could not be forced into loyalty as his hate specifically against him was too strong.

### Descent into the Dark Side

In 20 ABY, Dreackil's lair was attacked and destroyed in a battle with the Federation, allowing Varon a chance to escape. Varon was set free but was depressed as he had nowhere to go and no one to care for. His mindset had changed over the years. In his lone journey, he found himself agreeing more and more with the Sith philosophy and teachings and started to become cold and cunning.

### Rise of a new Dark Lord

By 30 ABY, Varon was caught and told of secret Sith artifacts by Dust Plitt, as the bounty hunter intendeed to use him to find these artifacts and sell them for money. During their exploration, Varon fought Kenara and defeated her but spared her life, taking her as an ally. The two were hit and captured by a mercenary who sold them off as slaves in Tatooine, to be used as entertainment and fight rancors. However Thorn managed to escape with the help of DF-42 members Noname and Gregglen. Being set free, Varon allied with Kenara and a rogue AK-50 droid. After he located the Sith Gauntlet and took it, he was betrayed by Kenara who took it for herself. With the help of Dust and AK-50, he faced Kenara and took her down. In his victory, he declared himself **Darth Thorn**. However he was tricked by Dust, who had taken the gauntlet with him and gave Varon a fake one. Tracking him down to Tatooine, Thorn allied with the Twin Sun Collective and started crusades in Tatooine against rival criminal factions. Finding Dust, he was led into a trap and captured by Jeff in his palace. Jeff experimented with the gauntlet and went mad but Dust freed Thorn and the Sith Lord defeated Jeff in battle, executing him and taking back the artifact. He spared Dust's life, forcing him to become a loyal servant. Thorn had himself a secret castle built where Jeff's palace used to be. He continued his conquest in Tatooine until the Valley incident, which left him powerless and forced him to rely on the gauntlets power to use the Force.

Thorn's existence was a case of mystery following the Valley incident, as no commoner knew of him, yet workers within the Collective had heard rumors and those with highest authority knew of his existence, yet only those trusted by the Sith Lord himself ever knew of his secret castle's location.

Staying hidden for years, Thorn conducted little operations, usually using the gauntlet. 5 years after the incident, Darth Thorn got reports of Resistance operations and Neo Jedi in Tatooine. He tracked down and slaughtered a base of theirs and later tracked a shuttle to their light-cruiser. He arrived and faced a legion of Neo-Jedi which he took out with relative ease using the real Force. After dealing with all of the Neo-Jedi, he encountered Bison and Noname along with the unconcsious Shruk. He took the mask artifact and left.

### Restoring the Force

2 years after that, the mask artifact was stolen from him and in search of more artifacts he encountered Shruk again and the two agreed to work together for now to find the rest of the artifacts and Thorn agreed to teach Shruk how to use the artifacts and perhaps let him keep one, though he never intended that to be the case as he wished to secure all artifacts in his castle. The two went to Dantooine where Thorn pretended to be a Jedi Master and followed Luke Valkoroven and his apprentice to the core of the Valley, where Toren Akora also followed them. Though Thorn intended to kill the Jedi and continue on their search, they were interrupted by a G.O. Security announcement on the planet, telling everyone to secure themselves in nearby shelter buildings. Although the Jedi were going to reveal the Sith Lord to the nearby troopers, Thorn convinced them that they would be guilty of conduct in Force related activities and convinced them to work together and go look for the artifact. They went into the temples infested with rakghouls and Valkoroven's apprentice was killed by Thorn behind everyones back after being bit by one. The remaining four cooperated and got to Vjun where they found another artifact however Thorn kept it while the other three decided to leave him as they could not trust him further. Darth Thorn then faced Drengus alone when he arrived and lost the duel to him, as Drengus took all of the artifacts he had and Thorn had to make his way across the facility to reach to a hangar and called in Toan for help, requesting a shuttle. He then came to Tatooine and received medical treatment while also ordering the Grave Tuskens to scour the deserts for Shruk, Toren and Valkoroven. In a fight with them and Samantha, Valkoroven ended escaping but Thorn took the artifact in a new deal to cooperate again so that they can find the rest of the artifacts and stop Drengus. While leaving the planet they were interdicted into Drengus' cruiser and sneaked their way into the prison, saving Dust, AK-50 and Jillian Kenta. They were able to make it out in time before Drengus arrived and also took Liu Kahn hostage. Darth Thorn personally tortured and interrogated Liu Kahn and learned about the artifact in Dagobah. They went to Mandalore and after speaking with Bison, they met and spoke to Jake Dosh where Thorn demonstrated his ability to use the Force with the artifacts and healed part of the dead forest. Shruk made the deal to help use this to save Mandalore as a whole if Jake allowed them to visit the artifact site and take it. They went there but after splitting up, Shruk was kidnapped and they had to fight off Neo-Jedi. Darth Thorn then took them to Dagobah and waited while Liu Kahn and others tried to get the artifact for him however he ran out of patience and rushed in to interrogate Val Tor about it himself. Liu Kahn found the artifact but was unable to defend against Thorn and thus was defeated but Valkoroven stepped in however he too was no match for Thorn. During the duel, he taunted Valkoroven saying he is responsible for his mothers death and used the rage against Valkoroven. After defeating him, Drengus arrived with his forces and intervened. Darth Thorn fought Drengus while others escaped with the artifact to their ship however the fight concluded as Drengus threw Thorn through a wall and chased after the others. Jake stayed behind with Thorn and the two talked with the Jedi to take their ship and leave the planet. Thorn and Jake went to help out the Collective HQ in Bestine as it was infiltrated by rival thugs. Darth Thorn arrived at the top and eventually found Vindee and Dust in a showdown and figured out that Vindee was a spy who was helping out Drengus as an infiltrator from within their base. He ordered Jake Dosh to brutally execute him with his flamethrower, urging him by telling him that he was probably responsible for Neo Jedi infiltrators in Mandalore as well. Valkoroven and Toren later attempted to sneak in and take Darth Thorn's artifact but they were caught as Toren was manipulated into shooting Valkoroven and working aside Thorn, saying he stands for justice as fights off it and those who stand with him are rewarded. Toren told him that the artifact they had was left in a GO cruiser over Mustafar, so Thorn flew over there and used disguises and mind tricks to take it back. Then, the two along with Bison and his Mando Mercs then went to Kashyyyk to free the enslaved wookies. They were largely successful but Darth Thorn's efforts were unwantedly aided by an unintentional ally, the leader of Republic Intelligence who did not want the reports of this secret war leaking, as Thorn had taken such reports from a base. Darth Thorn did not want to submit and thus fought off the forces with Toren but as part of clean up, the Intelligence destroyed the conquered military shuttle that Darth Thorn had planned to keep, as it held important information, along with killing Bison and his fellow comrades and burning down the comm tower they were situated at. The war ended in victory for the wookiees and Darth Thorn, who the wookiees gladly agreed to serve as part of a life debt. Valkoroven was patched up and rejoined Darth Thorn, who had uses in mind for him. They then went to Tython and infiltrated the GO secured crashed Nihil and found Shruk, now allied with Drengus against them, trying to take the artifact and he was taught by Drengus how to control it. Darth Thorn started fighting Shruk but he resorted to escape as he was no match. Chasing him and cutting through countless troopers, Darth Thorn ended up outside and started talking to Shruk as if he was an ally, tricking the GO troopers. Drengus forces then invaded and Darth Thorn came face to face with the Mountain, who he defeated in combat and left with a stab wound. The crew then took Shruk and the artifact and came back to Tatooine.

### Gathering an army

Darth Thorn assembled an army of hired mercs, grave tuskens, Mandalorians and wookiees and invaded Yavin IV, hoping to find an artifact there as it was taken from Mandalore and the only lead they had was the Federation. During their assault of the Jedi Temple, Darth Thorn experienced illusions, just like his fellow crew and started to lose his sanity to the artifacts. They were intercepted by Drengus forces and surrounded inside but Drengus was then betrayed by Federal allies and as they started infighting, Darth Thorn, Shruk, Toren and Valkoroven escaped. Thorn and Valkoroven made their way to the Citadel and started destroying the place to draw in Drengus, in hopes that their forces would destroy each other and Thorn could be victorious. Shruk and Toren reunited with the two and they fought off more Federal enforcers and a cyborg friend of Toren. However, the Galactic Order invaded the planet and drew off Drengus, leading Thorn and Valkoroven to chase after him. Aboard his cruiser, Thorn and Valkoroven encountered Balblo and Drengus, conspiring together with the Jedi having been tricked by Drengus that he was planning to restore peace and justice with the Jedi Order. Darth Thorn fought off Drengus and cornered him, until he injected himself with extracted midichlorians and used the artifacts to amplify his power in an instant. Drengus almost had the upperhand but then his artifacts got to his head and caused him to see Darth Thorn as Darth Vader, who he used to serve as an inquisitor long ago. Darth Thorn took the opportunity to decapitate him. Balblo was convinced of Drengus being evil upon seeing the collected Jedi corpses and agreed to follow Valkoroven and Thorn. Upon returning, Thorn fell into conflict with the rest of the crew as he wished to restore the Force but they were convinced otherwise and wanted to save Toren's father instead. They escaped his grasp but Thorn followed them to the Federal facility. Thorn tricked them, saying he would help save Kreddrell, but instead made Balblo use the artifacts to restore the Force, which drove Balblo insane and thus Thorn killed him. Enraged by lying to them, initially the others tried to fight Thorn but Shruk was knocked out and Valkoroven got convinced not to fight Thorn now. So they sneaked back aboard the Dark V and escaped Yavin IV, having to abandon the army. Darth Thorn dropped the others off in a desert nearby a town and went back to Bestine HQ.

## Personality and traits

### Jedi Knight

Varon was a caring person and willing to do what was necessary for the moral mission, even putting his life on the line for the mission. According to most, he was a little too similar to his master Pite Tverlo in how he dealt with his dark side and Imperial opponents, yet he was more reflexable, often relying on unorthodox options.

### Sith Lord

As many Sith Lords, Darth Thorn was cunning and deceptive and inward in his thinking. Unlike most dark siders however, Thorn was practical. Instead of always raging, Darth Thorn was calm and collected and appeared cold and apathetic. This made it harder for him to appeal to others around him but also harder for him to be affected and kept his intimidating posture. Darth Thorn was a lone survivor who only made decisions that benefit him though he was not necessarily savage and cruel. Thorn analyzed situations and handled himself carefully.

## Powers and abilities

### Lightsaber training

Darth Thorn was a skilled duelist and a good lightsaber practitioner, even with the lack of his Force senses he proved a match for the likes of Sharr Eck and Samantha Lynn, despite their artificial Neo-tech enhancements. Thorn utilized a varied selection of styles and tactics in duels, sometimes waiting out and dodging his opponent and sometimes purely overpowering them. Darth Thorn preferred a single handed style as it gave the leeway to perform more tricky moves. Only few have matched and bested Darth Thorn in active combat.

### Force powers

Darth Thorn was very strong in the Force and held somewhat of a "balance", able to utilize the Force as a weapon and a tool.

#### Telekinesis

Thorn strong in telekinesis and showed unique abilities. He was able to conjure up air and dark side energy in a bubble and throw it as a destructive orb. He was also able to hold a shuttle in place from flying and could Force it to crash, though this exhausted him.

#### Mind abilities

Thorn, learning from his master, was a well practitioner of mind related Force abilities. He was adept at a mind trick and he was able to disguise himself in the minds of his opponents. He could also read active emotional thoughts if the person he focused on was too emotional and revealing.

## Equipment

Main article: Darth Thorn's lightsaber
Main article: Dark IV
Main article: Dark V

As a Jedi, Varon built his first lightsaber shortly after being taken on by Pite Tverlo. He utilized a golden kyber crystal that he had found in Rhen Var. He used this lightsaber in his years as Jedi Knight. He also had his own X-Wing but also flew with his masters shuttle when they teamed up on missions.

After coming up with the plan to disguise himself among Sith ranks and assassinate Surect, Varon left his Jedi lightsaber among those others of The Lost. He donned the armor and and took the lightsaber of the Inquisitor as he infiltrated the Imperial Remnant. Even after getting caught and escaping years later, Varon wore the Inquisitor armor and used his blade in his early years of survival. In 30 ABY, the armor and lightsaber were destroyed when Varon was betrayed by Kenara. During these years Varon also utilized a mercenary shuttle he and other slaves had stolen during their escape from slave traders in Tatooine.

With Dust's resources and after a trip to Dorin to get what he needed, Varon built his first true Sith lightsaber with his first crafted synthetic crystal. He used this lightsaber in the subsequent duel with Kenara. After allying with Toan, Thorn was sewn custom dark robes to don during his conquest on Tatooine and his following years as a Sith Lord. He lost his lightsaber in his 2nd duel with Drengus on Dagobah after being thrown through the stone walls. Later on during his mission against Drengus, Thorn took a purple bladed lightsaber from Toren, who had taken it from the corpse of a Neo-Jedi. He used this lightsaber for the remainder of his mission, eventually killing Drengus with it. Thorn's robes were also torn and worn out by this point. Darth Thorn also had a customized ship built for him called the Dark IV, which he used until it was destroyed by Drengus after he lost their first duel on Vjun. Following this Thorn had the Dark V built for him in bestine. Both of the Dark Lord's custom shuttles were built for stealth and infiltration purposes and had a cloaking functionality.

After restoring the Force, Thorn arrived back to his castle and constructed a new Sith lightsaber and donned similar yet new dark Sith robes. He also continued to fly the Dark V.

## Appearances

* *New Jedi Order* Protagonist
* *Outcasts: Chapter IX - Dark Forces' Final Mission* Cameo
* *The Sith* (First Appearance) Protagonist
* *Outcasts: Chapter X - Mysteries of the Sith* Protagonist
* *The Sith: Most Wanted* Protagonist