|Sorcerers of Rhand|
| General information
- "Only power is real, and the only real power is the power to destroy. Existence is fleeting. Destruction is eternal."
- ―The core tenets of the Sorcerers of Rhand.
The Sorcerers of Rhand were a group of beings who believed in a power greater than the Force which they called the Dark. By following the Will or the Way of the Dark, they were granted special powers. Cronal was a member of their order before he left to become a Prophet of the Dark Side for Palpatine.
History and beliefsEdit
The Sorcerers of Rhand were the absolute rulers of the twelve stellar clusters known as the Nihil Retreat, which surrounded the Perann Nebula in the Unknown Regions. The sorcerers called themselves Rhandites and believed in the One Truth: "Only power is real, and the only real power is the power to destroy. Existence is fleeting. Destruction is eternal." For them, destruction was the will of the universe. They called this the Way of the Dark.
The Way of the Dark was the cornerstone of the Rhandites. They saw destruction as a permanent change in the structure of the universe. Through this destruction a void was created, an absence of life. The void was the foundation of truth. The sorcerers recognized neither the light or the dark side of the Force. In fact, they did not speak of the Force; for them there was only the Dark.
Furthermore, the Rhandites believed that the only relevant feature of the Dark was its response to the will of a properly trained being in line with the Way of the Dark. The Dark set being against being, star against star. It was the hidden energy of the cosmos. The greatest power of the Dark known to the Rhandites was the ability of Darksight. Darksight was the ability to create the future by looking at all the possible outcomes and choosing the one that suited the user best, though the outcome was not guaranteed. Part of its success was determined by the user's alignment with the Dark. Only through destruction could one ally themselves with the Way of the Dark.
The Rhandites originated from a merger between three different sects—the Kanzer Exiles of Lord Ravager Korman Lao, who practiced mental enslavement, and who built the Temple of Korman Lao near the Valtaullu Rift; the Knell of Muspilli, an ancient death cult from the Gunninga Gap who used the Taurannik Codex to summon apocalyptic gods from beyond the gap; and last the Warriors of Shadow, a priestly sisterhood of Taung who were defeated by the Battalions of Zhell in Coruscant's prehistory and who fled to the Unknown Regions to win atonement by meditation and insight. The three faiths came together on the planet of Rhand in the ruins of a dead species, and from the union, the Sorcerers were born.
- Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (First appearance)