Darth Caedus

Jacen Solo was the middle child of Leia and Han Solo. He trained in the Force under Luke Skywalker's guidance and became a very powerful Jedi. Later, influenced by Lumiya, Jacen turned to the Dark, Side becoming the powerful, Sith, Lord, known as Darth Caedus.

Darth Caedus, born Jacen Solo, was a human male who became a Sith Lord and turned against his family and friends, betraying his former principles and leading the Galactic Alliance he once championed into a reign of terror as he attempted to bring order and stability to a fractured galaxy. The son of Han and Leia Organa Solo, Caedus was once a leading Jedi Knight who proved crucial in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong and protecting the galaxy during the Yuuzhan Vong War. It was Solo's desire to protect the galaxy and his increasing willingness to accept any cost in that cause that facilitated his fall to the ways of the Sith, a trait that had similarly corrupted his grandfather, the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker, into Darth Vader.

Born in 9 ABY, Jacen Solo spent most of his early years as the target of various kidnapping plots and schemes against his famous parents. When he was thirteen, he and his twin sister Jaina began attending the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, where their uncle Luke Skywalker taught them the ways of the Force. There he made several friends, among them the Hapan princess Tenel Ka Djo, to whom he became strongly attracted. While training, he and his friends defeated numerous plots against the New Republic and, in 24 ABY, he and his younger brother Anakin were apprenticed to Skywalker.

A philosopher who struggled with the idea of employing violence to fight violence, Solo entered a personal crisis with the outbreak of the Yuuzhan Vong War. He preferred to serve off the front lines, but felt obligated to volunteer for the strike team assembled to eliminate the voxyn queen at Myrkr. There, Anakin Solo was killed and Jacen Solo stepped up to lead the team, killing the queen and ending the voxyn threat before he was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong.

Solo spent nearly a year in captivity, during which he was tortured for weeks at a time. Solo struggled with his circumstances and with the teachings of his captor and mentor, Vergere. He slipped to the dark side before returning and embracing the idea of responding to the universe with unconditional, all-encompassing love. He escaped Yuuzhan Vong custody with Vergere, a former Jedi of the Old Republic, and rejoined the war effort. In the final battle of the war, Solo stormed Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane's Citadel and defeated Onimi, who was mentally controlling the Supreme Overlord, while Solo himself experienced a moment of unity with the Force.

Afterward, he spent five years visiting and learning from various Force-using sects. During his time with the Mind Walkers, he experienced a vision of a dark figure ruling the galaxy and became determined to prevent its fulfillment. He returned to the New Jedi Order during the Dark Nest Crisis and, armed with a more ruthless philosophy of accepting various sacrifices in the name of the greater good, conspired to eliminate the Killiks to prevent another vision of galactic war and protect his infant daughter Allana, secretly conceived with Tenel Ka Djo. In 40 ABY, Solo agreed to become the apprentice of Lumiya after probing the future and finding that, if he did not do so, he would kill Luke Skywalker and the galaxy would be consumed by chaos.

He embarked on a year-long descent into the dark side, slowly turning against the Jedi and his family as he grew darker and more extreme. After seizing control of the Galactic Alliance, he kills Mara Jade Skywalker, tortures his former apprentice Ben Skywalker, commits multiple atrocities, takes Tahiri Veila as his own apprentice, and ascends to Sith mastery as Darth Caedus.

During his five-year journey, Solo began to lose his zest for learning, seeking knowledge but not taking great joy in it. He was already concerned with galactic peace, believing that in the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong War, it was the Jedi's responsibility to aid the broken galaxy in recovering order and stability. His vision of a dark enthroned figure drove him to a commitment to prevent this evil future. After returning, Solo was noted for being secretive and mysterious. He was frequently withdrawn from the Force and his twin bond with his sister, and he spoke little about his experiences. He was willing to take actions that other Jedi found morally questionable for the sake of what he saw as a greater good, including exterminating the Killiks to prevent his vision of galactic war and suffering.

Though Solo was initially a highly empathetic man, by 40 ABY he felt little sense of tragedy at the deaths of soldiers, even deaths at his own hand. He accepted the inevitability of sentients being sent to their deaths, and saw their transition to oneness with the Force as compensating for their deaths, though he did not desire to cause unnecessary or accidental deaths. He recognized that a significant change in his personality and values had taken place over time, without his realization until it was complete, but did not regret the alteration. Solo's focus became the greater good; he sought solutions that would harm the fewest in order to benefit the most, and justified doing harm to some by the benefits it could bring to more individuals.

Solo increasingly sought to control his environment, becoming uncomfortable when he was not in charge of his actions, feelings, and surroundings. He felt responsible not only for himself but for the security of the galaxy. This sprang into paranoia, making him believe that others were plotting against him or hiding ulterior motives.

The empathy that had characterized Jacen Solo disappeared, and Caedus found himself unable to put himself in the emotional positions of those around him. Despite his brutality, Caedus retained a love for those who opposed him and for the galaxy as a whole; he was simply willing to sacrifice anything in pursuit of the greater good.

By the time he was a Sith Lord, he was a deadly duelist, able to engage multiple Jedi at a time and even battle against Jedi Battlemaster Kyle Katarn with little effort.

As both Jacen Solo and Darth Caedus, he had more than merely the light side at his command. During his fall to the dark side while wandering on Coruscant, Solo instinctively summoned Force lightning and performed a Force choke as well. After becoming Darth Caedus, he had access to Sith battle meditation, giving him an ability to anticipate events and understand and manipulate the battlefield. Caedus began to manifest physical effects of the dark side, turning his irises yellow.

The Galactic Alliance is an interstellar federal republic formed out of the New Republic during its decline in the Yuuzhan Vong War. Incorporating most of the known galaxy, the Galactic Alliance was the first government to achieve this since the Galactic Empire.