| abstract
| - The Thisspiasian began to research the dark side of the Force, hoping to tap its power while hiding himself from the Empire. The money he had inherited from his parents funded his research, while he maintained his teaching position. He had no desire to be affiliated with the institution that had wrought such devastation on his homeworld. Instead, he focused his efforts on researching the arcane knowledge of the past. Over the years, he learned more and more and specialized in his knowledge of minerals and the effects of the Force in each one. He even learned how to build a lightsaber and constructed four of them, one for each arm. However, while he was deep in knowledge of the dark side and even some of the secrets of the Sith, his ability to practically wield the Force was limited. As the Empire crumbled, he began to seek out those who had such knowledge and could teach him. He resigned from the university in 10 ABY and fell in with a group of Dark Jedi, which included the Gotal Sha'laam Psykith and Humans Krakadas and Therior. Together, they searched for dark side artifacts and teachings while training themselves to further unleash the power of the dark side. The rise of the New Republic meant that they had to carefully conceal their teachings, particularly when Luke Skywalker began to rebuild the Jedi Order. Aspra made a significant breakthrough when he tapped into the power of the Ilnash crystal, a mineral that was closely attuned to the Force. Its presence when properly refined and shaped amplified any nearby usage of the dark side. Aspra kept the secrets of his mineralogy to himself, but used them to serve the needs of the group, allowing them to grow increasingly powerful. He was their teacher, the one who knew the most about the artifacts and texts they uncovered, but Therior, a former Inquisitorius trainee with his own frigate, was their leader. In 27 ABY, Psykith was slain by a group of Force-using Elite Guardians from Yanibar, who had learned of his activities and confronted him. Before Psykith fell, he sensed the burgeoning darkness in one of them, a Wroonian woman named Ariada Cerulaen and tempted her with the power of the dark side and knowledge of the others, telling her to seek out "the Thisspiasian." Ariada eventually fell to the dark side, her resolve worn down by the horrors of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and fled Yanibar. Remembering Psykith's message, she journeyed to Thisspias, where after dealing with a local Anzati criminal in spectacular, dominating fashion, her Force-use attracted the three Dark Jedi: Aspra Serpaddis, Therior, and Krakadas. Though she told them that Psykith had sent her, they were distrustful. To test her, they put her through a series of excruciating tests to prove both her identity and her dedication to the dark side. Ariada was first tortured until near death and only the willful choice to instead inflict that torture on another innocent in order to survive saved her—instead, the other prisoner was killed. She was also implanted with Ilnash crystals near her knuckles, shoulder blades, and kidneys that helped focus the dark side through her body. During these ordeals, Aspra Serpaddis stated his confidence in her and tried to see that she was treated well after she passed each test. Though he knew the need to test Ariada, he also sensed a greater power and calling in her, as well as her zeal to wield power to stop injustices, just as he had once been. Lastly, Therior required her to lead them to something that proved the existence of the Yanibar refuge of which she had told them. She reluctantly took them to Revan's tower, an ancient source of strength known to the Yanibar Guard, onboard their frigate Umbra's Edge. There, they found the Yanibar Guard placing a defensive mass shadow mine network around the location. Only Ariada's quick warning allowed them to escape being trapped there forever, though the Yanibar Guard ship there was also able to flee and thus warn Yanibar of the impending danger. Ariada's mind was forcibly entered by Therior during the incident, allowing him to take the technique needed to see through Force camouflage from her. However, denied his prize of the Force nexus, he insisted that she take them to Yanibar, using Force camouflage to hide the Umbra's Edge from the Yanibar Guard. She was dragged down to another room in the ship and chained to a chair near a group of dark-side focusing Ilnash crystals which would amplify her power to protect the ship. Aspra once again did his best to see that was she at least treated somewhat well, knowing she would need her strength. His relative compassion, while founded in pragmatism, impressed Ariada, as he knew it would. Thus hidden by Ariada's Force camouflage, Therior took the ship to the Yanibar system. However, while his curiosity was satisfied, they were detected by a powerful Force-user, Morgedh clan Kel'nerh. Undeterred, Umbra's Edge opened fire on the Yanibar Guard Fleet's space station and Yanibar itself. The resulting confusion allowed a Yuuzhan Vong ship which Therior had also arranged to accompany them to plant an orbit-wrecking dovin basal on Yanibar. The betrayal and collaboration with the enemy she hated so much incensed Ariada, but weakened by torture and ill-treatment as well as outnumbered, she couldn't retaliate immediately. However, now pursued by the Yanibar Guard Fleet, the Umbra's Edge sought to flee. Morgedh clan Kel'nerh caught up and boarded the frigate, attempting to sabotage its engines. Ariada and the three Dark Jedi confronted him, but the Elite Guardian was more than a match for them. Her revulsion for Therior and Krakadas led her to participate little in the fight, save to defend Aspra Serpaddis, who alone out of the Dark Jedi had shown her kindness and helped salve her ill-treatment. Morgedh quickly slew Therior and would have killed her, except that she tossed her weapon aside, taunting him to give into his anger and kill her in an unarmed state. Instead, they traded verbal jabs until Krakadas re-entered the fight. While Morgedh was distracted fighting Krakadas, she threw her one of her shotos through the Dark Jedi and into Morgedh, killing Krakadas and wounding Morgedh. He activated a series of explosives placed around the ship's core, intending to sacrifice himself to stop her and the frigate from escaping. However, she warned him of the danger of the Yuuzhan Vong dovin basal and said that only he could warn Yanibar of the threat. With that knowledge causing Morgedh to break off her pursuit, she and Aspra Serpaddis were able to escape to her Valkyrie bomber and flee the system. However, Ariada made one thing very clear to the other Dark Jedi: from now on, she was in charge. He complied, knowing that his own strengths would be best expressed by influencing her and helping her achieve her goals. Now freed of their shackles and those of the Yanibar Guard, she struck out on her own, plotting her revenge and her retribution on both the Yuuzhan Vong and the Yanibar Guard. In 30 ABY, Ariada and Aspra Serpaddis intercepted a small Jedi transport carrying nine Force-sensitive Hapan girls to safety during the final months of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Ariada boarded the ship and slew the Jedi onboard, taking the girls onto her ship. She deceived them, saying that the Jedi Knight had been part of a conspiracy by a corrupted Jedi Order. Ariada then raised the girls, teaching and training them to be her personal assassins as part of a plan to eventually overthrow and punish the Jedi Order for allowing the Yuuzhan Vong to survive the end of the war with fairly light reparations. She taught them skills she had learned in the Elite Guardians and arranged for them to receive physiological and cybernetic alterations to assist in their role. They called her Mother and she treated them as her devoted daughters, giving them new names, names of precious stones, to represent their value to her. Their original names were lost, as she now called them Opal, Emerald, Sapphire, Night Pearl, Durindfire, Diamond, Qixoni, Amethyst, and Garnet. During this eight-year period, she was assisted by Aspra Serpaddis and also acquired a custom-built cruiser, which she dubbed the Knightfall. Ariada supervised its upgrading, arranging for it to receive the latest in stealth technology, reverse-engineered Nighthawk missiles, and Force-enhancing Ilnash crystals, along with substantial facilities for scientific experiments and training her Nine. She also constructed a laboratory out of ruins on Tython, where she developed an advanced combat droid. Her research, started from Psykith's knowledge, led her to ancient Sith sorcery and she learned some of its techniques. She also uncovered an incredible and horrifying secret long thought lost: the technobeast virus. This pathogen turned its victims into mindless cyborgs with devastating haste and was uncurable—even the Jedi Masters of old had been unable to stop this plague during the New Sith Wars. Armed with ship, droids, virus, and assassin, Ariada was ready for her crusade with Aspra Serpaddis at her side. She began selecting two different kinds of target: those that posed a threat to her plans, such as key biological, epidemiological, or stealth experts, and high-visibility targets designed to inflict terror. In Ariada's mind, the Galactic Alliance and Jedi Order felt too secure and had become complacent. Her goal was to reveal the weakness of the Jedi Order such that the galaxy would reject them and take charge of their own security, allowing the Jedi to focus on stopping dark side threats. In her travels, Ariada encountered many things and people in the dark places that made even her shudder—threats the galaxy was not prepared for. In 38 ABY, her assassins murdered a cloaking scientist named Dmelte Volyken and she and Aspra Serpaddis unleashed the technobeast virus on Belsavis and Manaan, two worlds that had prior links to the Jedi Order. Over Belsavis, Ariada's cruiser and some of her assassins ambushed a pair of Jedi, shooting one of them down, but the other escaped with the help of a Yanibar Guard starfighter group that arrived to challenge them. Meanwhile, Ariada had traveled to Coruscant, where she brazenly entered the Convention for Biological Advancement, interrupted the speaker with a chilling announcement, and contaminated all three thousand researchers, many of whom were experts in fields that could potentially find a cure for the virus, with the technobeast virus. Shortly thereafter, Ariada surrendered herself to Galactic Alliance Security, as her description had been known due to her pageantry in the convention. She was taken to Armand Isard Detention Center and interrogated, to the point of torture, but gave no answer other than to say that she had been responsible for the bombing. However, Ariada was far from defeated. She escaped, killing her interrogator and plowing through the guards with her Force powers. Learning that the Yanibar Guard had partially foiled her attempt at Belsavis and that many of their finest, including Selu and Milya Kraen, were on Coruscant pursuing her, Ariada decided to strike back. She attacked the hangar where the Hawk-bat was berthed, taking two Yanibar Guard commandos hostage. When Selu, Milya, and Morgedh arrived to challenge her, she slew the two commandos, told them not to get in her way, as she was just starting, and retreated, leaving them to face off against four of her advanced combat droids. However, her attempt at retribution only further roused the ire of the Yanibar Guard, and Aspra Serpaddis warned her against being overzealous in her anger at Yanibar. Ariada agreed to his wisdom and took her ship and assassins to Belsavis, where she planned to finish the survivors of the earlier ambush, who included Jaina Solo. However, the Yanibar Guard reached there first. Her fighters were unable to stop the recovery attempt and her ship was forced to fight against a Yanibar Guard cruiser. However, Ariada used the Force to guide her weapons while keeping her ship cloaked and hidden in the Force, effectively letting her fire while cloaked. The result was a savage punishment of the Yanibar Guard ship. She was forced to break off when a Galactic Alliance task force arrived to quarantine the infected world. Meanwhile, her assassins were sent out on missions. Her strikes met with varied success. Garnet hit her targets successfully but was chased off by Jaina Solo after sabotaging Ryion's ship, sustaining injuries in the process. She returned to the Knightfall, where Ariada met her. Ariada chastised Garnet for being too aggressive in attacking Solo, but sympathized with her painful lesson, agreeing to treat her wounds. Emerald failed in her mission and was captured by Milya Kraen, though Ariada had no idea. Qixoni infected part of Zonama Sekot, but Zeyn defended Danni Quee and the infection was warded off. The assassin was slain after a prolonged chase, failing to kill either target. Durindfire successfully slew Yanibar's Ruling Council with the technobeast virus, but was killed by Sarth Kraen and Qedai. Meanwhile, Ariada took Diamond, Opal, Amethyst, Night Pearl, Sapphire, and Garnet to Bespin where Ryion's wife Shara was transiting through. They ambushed her at the Bexpress Shipping offices, killing her two escorts, only to be interrupted by Morgedh clan Kel'nerh, who had anticipated Ariada's targeting of Shara. Her forces eventually overwhelmed Morgedh and he plummeted into a carbonite freezer, taking one of her droids with him. Before he perished, he slew Night Pearl and activated the self-destruct. Ariada withdrew, taking Shara with her. Ariada brought Shara back to the Knightfall, using her to send a pair of chilling ultimatums. She told Selu Kraen to break off his pursuit of her, or else she would kill Shara. When her prisoner attempted to scream out additional information to Selu, Ariada cut off her finger as punishment, only to re-attach it later. Ariada then contacted Ryion and Jaina, who were departing Rhinnal, and told them that Shara and Jaina's family would be forfeit if they didn't surrender themselves to her. Ariada took them captive, but did not release Shara or the Solo-Skywalker family. Once she had Jaina and Ryion, Ariada used their DNA to conceive a child, implanting the embryo in Jaina, unbeknownst to either of them. Sensing that the future needed a powerful being to help stabilize it, she hoped to raise the child as her successor, combining the Force potential of the Skywalker bloodline with the Kraens. She also contacted the Chief of State, Cal Omas, and warned him that if he didn't stop the Galactic Alliance forces hunting her, she would unleash a nuclear device on Bespin and three technobeast virus bombs on Coruscant. Despite removing any tools or weapons they had brought onboard, Ariada did not realize that she had been fooled—Ryion and Jaina had planted tiny tracking particles on her ship when they were captured, which left a trail back for Selu Kraen to follow. At the same time, her visions had been growing increasingly erratic. Several of her assassins had fallen and the Galactic Alliance and Jedi were showing no discernible rift. Furthermore, the Yanibar Guard had been dogging her heels relentlessly and, in a completely unexpected development, had sacrificed their secrecy to work with the Jedi Order. She began pinning her hopes on the child growing within Jaina, realizing that she would need to go into hiding to raise the child in anticipation of future galactic instability. However, Selu and Milya Kraen followed her to where she was hiding the Knightfall over Mustafar, aided by Emerald, who had been turned by Milya. They boarded her ship using the Hawk-bat and thanks to Selu's Force camouflage, Ariada did not realize the danger until they had disabled her ship and come aboard. She sent Amethyst to hold the bridge, took Opal and Sapphire with her to Ryion's cell, and dispatched Aspra Serpaddis, Garnet, and Diamond to protect Jaina. In the ensuing fray, Ariada slashed out at Emerald, severely wounding her, but Opal and Sapphire were incapacitated, and she barely escaped. Ryion was freed and went on to free Jaina. Aspra Serpaddis confronted him, having Shara with him in a noose, and threatened to kill her. However, Ryion was able to free Jaina and intervene to save Shara before she was strangled. Aspra Serpaddis fled, but Ryion pursued him, following him to a training ring. The Thisspiasian told Ryion about the power and ancient knowledge that he had held, how he had helped shape Ariada's course, and offered him similar understanding. Ryion was undeterred and attempted to fight him. The Thisspiasian tossed Ryion's lightsaber, taken from him at his capture, back to him and squared off with his four lightsabers against Ryion's. When Ryion started to get the upper hand, Aspra Serpaddis triggered the sabotage he had performed on Ryion's lightsaber, but Ryion threw it aside and used his spare. Wielding the powerful lightsaber technique of Vaapad, he slashed off three of Aspra Serpaddis's arms before crushing his skull with his shield. With the bridge destroyed by collateral damage and engines sabotaged by Yanibar Guard commandos, the ship began plummeting towards Mustafar's fiery surface. Ariada raced back to her private sanctum to trigger the bombs and then escape with her DNA samples, to create another child. Selu and Milya Kraen followed her and attempted to talk her into surrendering. Ariada defiantly rejected them and armed the bombs. Selu and Milya were undeterred and defeated Ariada in a brutal duel. They ordered the rest of their party to escape the doomed ship and managed to override Ariada's security systems. Just as they were about to disarm the bombs and possibly escape, Ariada rose one last time, hurling Force lightning at them. However, Selu countered with his own Electric Judgment technique and the resulting shockwave sent Ariada flying out of the sanctum to plummet down a deep shaft, where she died. Her last malicious actions were successful in preventing Selu and Milya from escaping. They perished when they disarmed the bombs and Ariada's dark ship, the Knightfall, plunged down to crash into Mustafar, taking the remains of Aspra Serpaddis and his dark works with it.
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