Dragon Masque

=Description= "Masque is a Dark Lord that makes Vader look like a Republic scout."

- Devon Vos

The ancient Sith Lord known as Dragon Masque was a powerful Falleen Darksider who sought to plunge the galaxy into chaos so that the Dark Side would become the dominant side of the Force. At his prime, he was one of the most feared of the Sith Lords of Darth Ruin’s order. He was highly skilled in the Art of Fighting, the Art of War, and the Art of Deception.

Masque also favored keeping female slaves near him as a sign of dominance and for pleasure. He used the slavery business for profit and was not above selling off his own devotees to interested buyers.

Although it is unknown when he was born, Masque had an extraordinarily long life and was at least 2,000 years old before his death. As he died from old age, Masque transferred all of his power and knowledge into the Defel Darksider known as Sivter. Although Masque’s considerable strength was eventually exorcised from the Defel by Kalja Sairu Leidias, his knowledge remained and would help guide Sivter in his many future endeavors.

Thanks to Sivter, Dragon Masque’s wealth of knowledge continues to live on in the Arcanix Holocron.

=Appearance= Through a combination of age and the burden of possessing so much power in the Dark Side, Dragon Masque’s features were so deformed that he barely resembled a Falleen. Despite this, Masque remained physically powerful right up to his eventual death. His eyes were a deep red that gleamed in the light.

Masque frequently wore a set of armor that was appropriately styled with a dragon motif. When not wearing his armor, Masque preferred a simple black cloak.

=Skills= Dragon Masque was a master of illusion, deception, and the mind. He could control multiple victims at the same time, and it was said that there wasn’t a mind he couldn’t enter.

His ability to create illusions was so powerful that it could reach across lightyears. Masque was also known to be able to make his illusions somewhat corporeal, although the effort to do so was draining.

Masque was very adept at inspiring loyalty to him. Although the Force played a large role in this, his ability was also enhanced by Masque’s natural Falleen pheromones.

In addition to Masque’s powers in the Dark Side, he had the unusual ability of being a natural psionic. In fact, Masque’s ability was so great that he had to use the Force to keep his abilities in check.

=History=

Life of a Sith Lord
Dragon Masque was born on the planet Falleen under the name of Xino. He came from a wealthy family, but almost nothing else is known about his time before becoming a Darksider. He was eventually brought into the New Sith Empire by Burrak Toggnill, who he would soon murder to gain prestige among the Sith. Masque proved himself to be a powerful Sith Lord and took the name Darth Vesp to show his dedication to the Dark Side.

The New Sith Empire, however, eventually fell into civil war and by the time of Lord Kaan and the Brotherhood of Darkness, Masque had already left and dropped the Darth moniker to distance himself from them. He renamed himself Dragon Masque and created his own following, drawing over a thousand members at its height, eighty of which were known to be Jedi that he had corrupted. Ironically, Masque’s decision to leave the Sith meant that he and his cult would survive the New Sith Wars relatively unscathed.

His cult remained in operation for another 600 years after the wars ended, but its operations were, by necessity, more carefully hidden. Masque’s cult would eventually be brought to an end by the Jedi Order, mainly through the efforts of Jedi Master Bahn Tak-Vhodda. During what was thought by both parties to be their final duel, Masque and Tak-Vhodda ended up being frozen in carbonite and neither would be released until some time during the Galactic Civil War.

Death of a Sith Lord
The menace of Dragon Masque would return to threaten the galaxy after he and Tak-Vhodda were accidentally revived by Devon Vos and his companions. Thanks to the fact that he was suffering the effects of hibernation sickness, Masque was defeated by Vos and Tak-Vhodda and would have been destroyed if not rescued by a young woman who called herself Razor. Through her interference, Masque was able to escape to safety. He took Razor on as his apprentice shortly thereafter.

As he regained his strength, Masque wasted no time in reforming his cult, drawing other Darksiders or like-minded individuals to him. The Cult of Dragon Masque grew quickly, offering mutual protection to its members as well giving them opportunities for personal and monetary gains, even as Masque worked once more to drive the galaxy into chaos. The Falleen’s own personal fortunes, significant even in his day, had grown considerably during the centuries he was locked in the carbonite, easily giving Masque the means to start anew.

However, Masque knew that his time was growing short. His body was near its end and he began to have visions of a being of darkness who would arrive before him and carry on with his legacy. These visions were eventually embodied by a Dark Jedi who called himself Sivter. At Masque’s invitation, Sivter joined the cult but enjoyed the status of not being beholden to it. After Sivter proved his abilities and his own impressive knowledge during the hunt for the planet Chisas, Masque made the ultimate decision to transfer all of his power and knowledge into Sivter. The Falleen’s body disappeared with the transfer, marking an end to his long reign.

=Legacy= With Masque’s power, Sivter nearly succeeded in bringing a jihad to the galaxy and was only stopped after Kalja Sairu Leidias unexpectedly used Spirit Exorcism. Even though Sivter lost Masque’s power through Kalja’s efforts, the knowledge remained. With the Sith Lord’s lifetimes of experience and information to draw from, Sivter would devise several new Force techniques and become one of the galaxy’s most powerful Darksiders.

Sivter would abandon the Cult of Dragon Masque after the significant loss at Chisas. With no clear leader, the cult was torn apart by power struggles before Sivter eventually returned and reunited the disparate factions into the Cult of Shadow. The new cult would continue Masque’s desire to spread the chaos of the Dark Side, bypassing its predecessor in size, strength, and influence.