Overseer Harkun

Harkun was a Human male of the Sith Empire who rose to the position of Overseer at the Sith Academy on Korriban during the era of the Great Galactic War and the subsequent Cold War. Trained as an acolyte on Korriban, he later became tied to the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge under Sith Lord Zash, serving in the academy’s hierarchy beneath her authority. By the Cold War, he had been elevated to Overseer, responsible for selecting and shaping raw recruits into Sith through brutal trials. A staunch xenophobe and classist, Harkun despised slaves and aliens, believing only Purebloods and highborn should hold Sith titles.

Around 3643 BBY, Zash ordered him to oversee a new class of acolytes drawn from the Empire’s slave pens, intending to find a potential apprentice. Harkun resented this order and manipulated the process to favor Ffon Althe, a Pureblood acolyte he handpicked and groomed as the rightful successor, while attempting to sabotage the progress of the slave-born initiate descended from the ancient Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig. He demeaned this acolyte, dismissed their accomplishments, bribed peers to kill them, and sent them on nearly impossible tasks. Yet the acolyte survived every trial, gaining Zash’s attention. For the final mission, Harkun sent Althe to retrieve a star map from the tomb of Naga Sadow, while the slave acolyte—through Zash’s secret aid—freed the Dashade Khem Val and secured victory. Harkun tried to credit Althe by seizing the map, but when confronted, Althe confessed the truth to Zash. In punishment, she executed Althe in front of Harkun, claiming the slave as her apprentice. Though enraged, Harkun could not defy her and remained Overseer at the academy, his threat to harass the new Sith proving empty.

Appearance: Harkun is a Human male with short, dark brown hair styled upward into a pointed crest, and a narrow goatee on his chin. His eyebrows are thick, with his right brow featuring a distinct downward slant and a sharp red Sith tattoo extending above and beyond it, forming an angular mark across his forehead. His skin is light-toned and bears visible scarring on the right side of his face, running vertically down from the temple to the cheek. His eyes are blue-green. He wears dark crimson and black robes with armored plating on the shoulders, colored in silver-gray with angular edges. His attire is designed with layered segments and padding, typical of Sith military or academy uniforms.

Years later, following Zash’s downfall and the ascension of her apprentice as Lord Kallig, Harkun continued his duties. When Kallig returned to Korriban to replace apprentices lost to Darth Thanaton’s purges, Harkun presented a new class of six acolytes, which Thanaton declined, leaving Kallig to choose. Though Harkun bet on a Gran initiate, Kallig chose the Kaleesh Xalek, whose ruthless determination reminded Harkun of his master. By this time, Harkun treated Kallig with respect, and though he claimed to be less harsh with students, he remained loyal to the traditional brutality of Sith training.

Harkun was consistently obsequious toward Sith Purebloods and highborn superiors but cruel and dismissive toward slaves, aliens, and the weak. He executed acolytes deemed unworthy, such as Kory after her failure before Spindrall, and openly plotted to see lowborn candidates die during trials. Despite his scorn, he tolerated Kallig’s rise under Zash’s protection, unwilling to risk open defiance against a favored apprentice. His philosophy reflected his belief that only the cunning and strong deserved survival, but he feared the Empire’s decline if this rule was replaced by blind slaughter.

Though not a great warrior by Sith standards, Harkun was capable in the Force, wielding a lightsaber and channeling Force lightning. His true legacy was his role as Overseer of the academy, where his prejudice, scheming, and failures inadvertently contributed to the rise of one of the Empire’s most powerful Sith Lords.

In the years after the Treaty of Coruscant, the planet Korriban had become a major center of learning for the Sith Empire, the Sith Empire had seemingly built upon the tombs and the former Dreshdae, as well as uncovering many lost tombs and caverns. At some point all Acolytes went through training here, seeking to become an apprentice to a Sith Lord or Darth, the typically brutal trials increased, often becoming trials where only one out of numerous Acolytes could possibly survive, the death count was astronomical.

The Sith Academy on Korriban was a facility in use during the Jedi Civil War and later the Cold War, dedicated to training Force-sensitives in the ways of the Sith, and running archaeological projects in the Valley of the Dark Lords.

The Cold War is a galaxy-level astropolitical tension between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire and their respective allies after 3653 BBY. The Treaty of Coruscant ended the Great Galactic War, sealing the Sith Empire's partial victory and its annexation of almost two thirds of the known galaxy. Peace was gained, but tensions between the Empire and the Republic remained high, especially as the Empire began seizing more planets in the Core Worlds. In the ten years after the war, fear and uncertainty gripped the galaxy. Border skirmishes and proxy wars between the Empire and Republic erupted, and the uneasy truce between the two foes appeared to be on the verge of collapse, as it finally did in 3641 BBY. As a result of the immense power that they held during the Cold War, this was well-regarded as having been the time in which the Sith are at their mightiest.

The Republic uses Republic Troopers and a variety of walkers. The Empire uses Sith Troopers, war droids, and a variety of walkers.