Darth Zannah

Darth Zannah, known as "Rain" during her childhood, was a human female Dark Lord of the Sith from the planet Somov Rit who lived during the Golden Age of the Old Republic. While known by the nickname of Rain, she was recruited into the Jedi's Army of Light during the Ruusan campaign of the New Sith Wars by Jedi Master Torr Snapit, but after arriving on Ruusan, was separated from the group during a Sith attack and presumed dead. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, she had been saved and befriended by a member of the native Bouncer species called Laa. When the Brotherhood of Darkness later unleashed a massive Force storm, Rain survived by instinctively enveloping herself and Laa with a bubble of Force energy. Not long afterward, the young girl watched as Laa was haplessly killed by Jedi scouts. Stricken with anger and grief, she unwittingly gave in to the dark side and murdered the Jedi with the Force. Her display of rage attracted the attention of the war's only surviving Dark Lord, Darth Bane, who decided to take her as his apprentice. Rain cast away the handle of her youth and instead embraced her birth name, becoming Darth Zannah.

Zannah's preliminary Force training took place on the planet Ambria and involved the study of ancient Sith magic. Zannah executed a variety of missions designed to incite anarchist movements throughout the Galactic Republic, including manipulating the terrorist Anti-Republic Liberation Front into a botched kidnapping attempt on former Supreme Chancellor Tarsus Valorum. From Hetton, the ARLF's leader, Zannah also recovered information regarding the creation of holocrons, a secret highly sought by her Master, who later killed Hetton after Zannah tricked him into an attack on the Dark Lord. When the parasites that comprised Bane's body armor began to cause him concern, Zannah was tasked with infiltrating the Jedi Temple archives on Coruscant to obtain information about the creatures. Her mission complete, Zannah was surprised to encounter her cousin Darovit, who confessed that he had exposed her presence to the Jedi. Zannah fled Coruscant with him and met Darth Bane on Tython, where the Sith prepared to battle the pursuant Jedi. Despite their numbers, all of the Jedi were slain, although Bane was grievously wounded and on the brink of dying. Zannah returned with her Master to Ambria and demanded on threat of death that the local healer save the Dark Lord, which he agreed to do only after Zannah revealed the Sith presence on Ambria to the Jedi. She betrayed and killed the healer upon completion of the procedure and also used her power to drive Darovit mad. The respondent Jedi assumed that he was the Sith Lord they sought and killed him, effectively convincing the Jedi of the Sith's final eradication. With no surviving witnesses, the existence of Darth Zannah and her Master remained safely anonymous.

The Sith relocated to Ciutric IV, and over the course of ten years, Zannah grew to be an accomplished Sith sorceress who equaled Darth Bane in strength. When she failed to confront him for the position of Dark Lord, Bane believed she lacked initiative. However, Zannah had already begun to contemplate his demise. On a mission to Doan, she learned of a Dark Jedi named Set Harth and enlisted the reluctant young man as her apprentice. Zannah returned with him to Ciutric IV to confront her own Master, only to find that Bane had been captured by the Doan Royal Guard. Soon after, Bane, who had taken the Iktotchi Darth Cognus as his new apprentice, called Zannah to meet him on Ambria, where they dueled for the final time. Zannah was initially overwhelmed by her Master's attacks, but she was able to use her sorcery to injure him. As a last resort, Bane attempted to transfer his essence into her body, but was defeated when Zannah's spirit condemned his to the void of the dark side. Zannah then took Darth Cognus as her apprentice and continued Bane's legacy as Dark Lord of the Sith.

Zannah has short, tousled, dirty blond hair and yellow Sith eyes. She grew into an athletically built, left-handed woman of average height, with long, blond curls of hair and eyes yellow with the dark side. She was often looked upon by those whom she encountered in public as unusually beautiful, and was fully aware of her striking appearance.Despite this, she often made full use of her appearance, using her looks to assist her when extracting information from others. She showed no fear of Darth Bane upon their first meeting, instead admitting that she, like him, was also a killer. With time, Zannah grew in cunning and ingenuity, and Darth Bane became impressed with her subtle and calculating nature, the same methods with which she employed the Force. Nonetheless, Zannah was regarded by her Master as no more than an heir to his Sith legacy.

Zannah displayed a hunger for knowledge and readily accepted Bane's offer to train her, passing several tests as a child to convince him of her dedication. She was eager to learn the spells of Freedon Nadd, and was also eager to learn a more aggressive style of lightsaber combat, before her Master explained the reason for elevating her to Form III mastery. Of all the things Zannah learned from Bane, compassion and love were not among them, and she found herself questioning what an actual loving paternal relationship would have been like. She did experience love of the romantic sort, however, from the Twi'lek Kelad'en, though she only feigned the same desire for him in return.

Zannah was loyal to Darth Bane throughout her time with him and carried out his orders without question. She expressed concern for Bane's health with regard to his parasitic orbalisk armor, both for his sake and with her own intentions in mind. When Bane lay dying on Tython, Zannah cared for him, albeit selfishly; her reason for keeping him alive was so that she could continue to learn from him the ways of the dark side. Zannah recognized that treachery against her Master one day was also the way of the Sith, and pledged herself to striking him down in accordance with the Rule of Two.

Darth Zannah was a left-handed master of the lightsaber combat form Soresu, becoming proficient at creating defensive barriers using a custom-made, double-bladed lightsaber. Her unique weapon allowed her to defend herself indefinitely against enemies with minimal effort, only switching to the offensive when her adversary was weakened or frustrated. Zannah could concentrate on and incorporate Force techniques while battling with her enemies.

As a student of the dark side, Darth Zannah perfected her natural talent for Sith magic and became an accomplished sorceress. She studied the doctrines of the ancient Sith magician Freedon Nadd and mastered his teachings for a variety of effects—covering herself and others in a false light side aura, driving people insane by showing them their greatest fears, or even simply masking her presence in the Force were all within the scope of her abilities.